Application and network-based long poll request detection and cacheability assessment therefor

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for application and network-based long poll request detection and cacheability assessment therefore are disclosed. In one aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure include a method, which may be implemented on a distributed proxy and cache system, including, determining relative timings between a first request initiated by the application, a response received responsive to the first request, and a second request initiated subsequent to the first request also by the application, and/or using the relative timings to determine whether requests generated by the application are long poll requests. The relative timings can be used to determine whether the second request is immediately or near-immediately re-requested after the response to the first request is received. The relative timings can also be compared to request-response timing characteristics for other applications to determine whether the requests of the application are long poll requests.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/274,248 entitled “APPLICATION AND NETWORK-BASED LONG POLL REQUESTDETECTION AND CACHEABILITY ASSESSMENT THEREFOR,” filed on Oct. 14, 2011now U.S. Pat. No. 8,166,164 which claims benefit of U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 61/408,858 entitled “CROSS APPLICATION TRAFFICCOORDINATION”, which was filed on Nov. 1, 2010, U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/408,839 entitled “ACTIVITY SESSION AS METHOD OFOPTIMIZING NETWORK RESOURCE USE”, which was filed on Nov. 1, 2010, U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/408,829 entitled “DISTRIBUTEDPOLICY MANAGEMENT”, which was filed on Nov. 1, 2010, U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 61/408,846 entitled “INTELLIGENT CACHE MANAGEMENTIN CONGESTED WIRELESS NETWORKS”, which was filed on Nov. 1, 2010, U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/408,854 entitled “INTELLIGENTMANAGEMENT OF NON-CACHEABLE CONTENT IN WIRELESS NETWORKS”, which wasfiled on Nov. 1, 2010, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/408,826 entitled “ONE WAY INTELLIGENT HEARTBEAT”, which was filed onNov. 1, 2010, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/408,820entitled “TRAFFIC CATEGORIZATION AND POLICY DRIVING RADIO STATE”, whichwas filed on Nov. 1, 2010, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/416,020 entitled “ALIGNING BURSTS FROM SERVER TO CLIENT”, which wasfiled on Nov. 22, 2010, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/416,033 entitled “POLLING INTERVAL FUNCTIONS”, which was filed onNov. 22, 2010, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/430,828entitled “DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM WITH NETWORK TRAFFIC HARMONIZATION”, whichwas filed on Jan. 7, 2011, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/532,857 entitled “CACHE DEFEAT DETECTION AND CACHING OF CONTENTADDRESSED BY IDENTIFIERS INTENDED TO DEFEAT CACHE”, which was filed onSep. 9, 2011, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/533,007entitled “DISTRIBUTED CACHING IN A WIRELESS NETWORK OF CONTENT DELIVEREDFOR A MOBILE APPLICATION OVER A LONG-HELD REQUEST”, which was filed onSep. 9, 2011, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/533,021entitled “APPLICATION AND NETWORK-BASED LONG POLL REQUEST DETECTION ANDCACHEABILITY ASSESSMENT THEREFOR”, which was filed on Sep. 9, 2011, thecontents of which are all incorporated by reference herein.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/176,537 entitled “DISTRIBUTED CACHING AND RESOURCE AND MOBILE NETWORKTRAFFIC MANAGEMENT,” which was filed on Jul. 5, 2011, the contents ofwhich are herein incorporated by reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/274,250 entitled “Distributed Caching In A Wireless Network OfContent Delivered For A Mobile Application Over A Long-Held Request”,which is concurrently filed herewith, and the contents of which areherein incorporated by reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/274,265 entitled “Caching Adapted for Mobile Application Behavior andNetwork Conditions,” which is concurrently filed herewith, and thecontents of which are herein incorporated by reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/274,501 entitled “Request and Response Characteristics basedAdaptation of Distributed Caching In A Mobile Network”, which isconcurrently filed herewith, and the contents of which are hereinincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

The mobile application model has significantly changed consumption ofcontent managed on the Internet. For example, joining social media andinstant messaging applications, increasingly popular mobile gamingapplications such as Angry Birds, are some of the latest types ofapplications to send mobile signaling and data consumption skyrocketing.Angry Birds is just one example of the many available applications thatconstantly signal the mobile network for updates at hundreds and eventhousands of times per hour. As such, traditional practices of providingall-you-can-eat data plans have become a thing of the past. The datatsunami is affecting the mobile ecosystem as a whole, and end-users arefeeling the brunt of the wrath as operators scramble to find the bestsolution.

The applications that contribute to mobile data consumption can furtherinclude, for example, push email, instant messaging, visual voicemail,voice and video telephony, and others which may require an always-on offrequent IP connections and frequent transmit of small bits of data.Further, these applications poll their host servers with varying pollingcharacteristics, due to the nature of the application, user activity,and/or nature of data being exchanged. For example, one category ofpolling can be represented by a persistent IP connection, such as oneestablished by long polling or COMET style push, which is a webapplication model where long-held request (e.g., long-held HTTPrequests) allows server to push data to the client when this databecomes available.

The persistent connection allows emulation of content push from serverto client (e.g., mobile client). Specifically, when a response is notavailable when the request is sent, the server holds the request untilinformation becomes available to be sent to the client. In general, theclient immediately re-issues a request to the server, which the serverthen responds to or holds until a response is available. This behaviorof long polls or other types of persistent connections is different fromother types of polling. Due to the different caching requirements ofdifferent types of polling, different classes of polling patterns, suchas long poll patterns and characteristics need to be detected foreffective caching and assessment of cacheability.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A illustrates an example diagram of a system where a host serverfacilitates management of traffic, content caching, and/or resourceconservation between mobile devices (e.g., wireless devices) and anapplication server or content provider in a wireless network (orbroadband network) for resource conservation.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example diagram of a proxy and cache systemdistributed between the host server and device which facilitates networktraffic management between a device and an application server/contentprovider for resource conservation and content caching.

FIG. 2A depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of client-sidecomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system residing on a mobiledevice (e.g., wireless device) that manages traffic in a wirelessnetwork (or broadband network) for resource conservation, contentcaching, and/or traffic management.

FIG. 2B depicts a block diagram illustrating another example ofcomponents in the application behavior detector and the caching policymanager in the local proxy on the client-side of the distributed proxysystem shown in the example of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 3A depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of server-sidecomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system that manages trafficin a wireless network (or broadband network) for resource conservation,content caching, and/or traffic management.

FIG. 3B depicts a block diagram illustrating another example ofcomponents in the caching policy manager in the proxy server on theserver-side of the distributed proxy system shown in the example of FIG.3A.

FIG. 4A depicts a timing diagram showing how data requests from a mobiledevice (e.g., any wireless device) to an application server/contentprovider in a wireless network (or broadband network) can be coordinatedby a distributed proxy system in a manner such that network and batteryresources are conserved through using content caching and monitoringperformed by the distributed proxy system.

FIG. 4B depicts an interaction diagram showing how application pollshaving data requests from a mobile device (e.g., any wireless device) toan application server/content provider in a wireless network (orbroadband network) can be can be cached on the local proxy and managedby the distributed caching system.

FIG. 5 depicts a diagram showing one example process for implementing ahybrid IP and SMS power saving mode on a mobile device (e.g., anywireless device) using a distributed proxy and cache system (e.g., suchas the distributed system shown in the example of FIG. 1B).

FIG. 6 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example process fordistributed content caching between a mobile device (e.g., any wirelessdevice) and remote proxy and the distributed management of contentcaching.

FIG. 7 depicts an interaction diagram showing cache management by adistributed proxy system of content delivered to a mobile applicationover a long-held request while ensuring freshness of content delivered.

FIG. 8 depicts a timing diagram showing hunting mode behavior in a longpoll request and a timing diagram showing timing characteristics whenthe long poll has settled.

FIG. 9 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process for cachingcontent pushed to a mobile device (e.g., any wireless device) in apersistent connection from a content server over a wireless network (orbroadband network).

FIG. 10 depicts a diagram showing example processes that occur whenremoving a stored response from the local cache on a mobile device(e.g., any wireless device) for a long poll request.

FIG. 11 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process for usingcached content provided over a long-held connection via a wirelessnetwork (or broadband network) to satisfy mobile client requests on amobile device (e.g., any wireless device).

FIG. 12 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process for cachingcontent received at a mobile device (e.g., any wireless device) over apersistent connection over a wireless network (or broadband network).

FIG. 13 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordetecting a long poll request initiated at a mobile device (e.g., anywireless device).

FIG. 14 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordetermining whether to cache content received in long poll requests ofan application on a mobile device using timing intervals in arequest-response timing sequence.

FIG. 15 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordetecting requests for a persistent connection (e.g., long pollrequests, long-held HTTP requests, or HTTP streaming requests) from anapplication using relative timings in request-response timing sequences.

FIG. 16 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordetermining whether to cache content received for an application overlong-held connections on a mobile device.

FIG. 17A depicts an example of a timing diagram showing timingcharacteristics for request-response sequences.

FIG. 17B depicts an example of a timing diagram showing timingcharacteristics for request-response sequences characteristic of a longpoll.

FIG. 18 depicts example timing diagrams showing timing characteristicsfor various types of request-response sequences.

FIG. 19 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not tobe construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certaininstances, well-known or conventional details are not described in orderto avoid obscuring the description. References to one or an embodimentin the present disclosure can be, but not necessarily are, references tothe same embodiment; and, such references mean at least one of theembodiments.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodimentsmutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features aredescribed which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others.Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirementsfor some embodiments but not other embodiments.

The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinarymeanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in thespecific context where each term is used. Certain terms that are used todescribe the disclosure are discussed below, or elsewhere in thespecification, to provide additional guidance to the practitionerregarding the description of the disclosure. For convenience, certainterms may be highlighted, for example using italics and/or quotationmarks. The use of highlighting has no influence on the scope and meaningof a term; the scope and meaning of a term is the same, in the samecontext, whether or not it is highlighted. It will be appreciated thatsame thing can be said in more than one way.

Consequently, alternative language and synonyms may be used for any oneor more of the terms discussed herein, nor is any special significanceto be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussedherein. Synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one ormore synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use ofexamples anywhere in this specification including examples of any termsdiscussed herein is illustrative only, and is not intended to furtherlimit the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplifiedterm. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodimentsgiven in this specification.

Without intent to limit the scope of the disclosure, examples ofinstruments, apparatus, methods and their related results according tothe embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note thattitles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of areader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unlessotherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein havethe same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in theart to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, thepresent document, including definitions will control.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods forapplication and network-based long poll request detection andcacheability assessment therefor.

For example, a long poll request initiated at a mobile device can bedetected by determining relative timings between a first requestinitiated by the application, a response received responsive to thefirst request, and a second request initiated subsequent to the firstrequest also by the application. The relative timings can be used todetermine whether requests generated by the application are long pollrequests. Furthermore, using the relative timings and receivedresponsive to the requests generated by the application, it can bedetermined that content received for the application is cacheable, whenthe received responses indicate repeatability, and/or when the relativetimings depict some pattern that may be reproducible.

A long-held request generally includes and can refer to, connectionsbetween a client (e.g., an application, a mobile application on adevice, or a device such as a mobile device or wireless device) and aserver that is held open even if content is not available to be sentback to the client. The connection can be maintained between the clientand server, until content becomes available at the server to be sent tothe client. In general, once a response with content is sent back to theclient (e.g., end user computer or mobile device such as a mobile phone,or a Machine to Machine (M2M) device)) the connection terminates (e.g.,terminated by the server). The client typically will immediatelyre-issue a request to connect again to the server which holds theconnection open until requested content becomes available for the clientdevice.

A long-held requested connection can include, for example, a persistentconnection, a persistent HTTP connection, long poll-type request, HTTPstreaming, or any other types of connections suited for push or emulatedcontent push.

One embodiment of the disclosed technology includes, a system thatoptimizes multiple aspects of the connection with wired and wirelessnetworks, broadband networks, and devices through a comprehensive viewof device and application activity including: loading, currentapplication needs on a device, controlling the type of access (push vs.pull or hybrid), location, concentration of users in a single area, timeof day, how often the user interacts with the application, content ordevice, and using this information to shape traffic to a cooperativeclient/server or simultaneously mobile devices without a cooperativeclient. Because the disclosed server is not tied to any specific networkprovider it has visibility into the network performance across allservice providers. This enables optimizations to be applied to devicesregardless of the operator or service provider, thereby enhancing theuser experience and managing network utilization while roaming.Bandwidth has been considered a major issue in wireless networks today.More and more research has been done related to the need for additionalbandwidth to solve access problems—many of the performance enhancingsolutions and next generation standards, such as those commonly referredto as 4G, namely LTE, 4G, and WiMAX are focused on providing increasedbandwidth. Although partially addressed by the standards a key problemthat remains is lack of bandwidth on the signaling channel more so thanthe data channel and the standard does not address battery life verywell.

Embodiments of the disclosed technology includes, for example, alignmentof requests from multiple applications to minimize the need for severalpolling requests; leverage specific content types to determine how toproxy/manage a connection/content; and apply specific heuristicsassociated with device, user behavioral patterns (how often theyinteract with the device/application) and/or network parameters.

Embodiments of the present technology can further include, movingrecurring HTTP polls performed by various widgets, RSS readers, etc., toremote network node (e.g., Network Operation Center (NOC)), thusconsiderably lowering device battery/power consumption, radio channelsignaling and bandwidth usage. Additionally, the offloading can beperformed transparently so that existing applications do not need to bechanged.

In some embodiments, this can be implemented using a local proxy on themobile device (e.g., any wireless device) which automatically detectsrecurring requests for the same content (RSS feed, Widget data set) thatmatches a specific rule (e.g., happens every 15 minutes). The localproxy can automatically cache the content on the mobile device whiledelegating the polling to the server (e.g., a proxy server operated asan element of a communications network). The server can then notify themobile/client proxy if the content changes, and if content has notchanged (or not changed sufficiently, or in an identified manner oramount) the mobile proxy provides the latest version in its cache to theuser (without need to utilize the radio at all). This way the mobile orwireless device (e.g., a mobile phone, smart phone, M2M module/MODEM, orany other wireless devices, etc.) does not need to open (e.g., thuspowering on the radio) or use a data connection if the request is forcontent that is monitored and that has been not flagged as new/changed.

The logic for automatically adding content sources/application servers(e.g., including URLs/content) to be monitored can also check forvarious factors like how often the content is the same, how often thesame request is made (is there a fixed interval/pattern?), whichapplication is requesting the data, etc. Similar rules to decide betweenusing the cache and request the data from the original source may alsobe implemented and executed by the local proxy and/or server.

For example, when the request comes at an unscheduled/unexpected time(user initiated check), or after every (n) consecutive times theresponse has been provided from the cache, etc., or if the applicationis running in the background vs. in a more interactive mode of theforeground. As more and more mobile applications or wireless enabledapplications base their features on resources available in the network,this becomes increasingly important. In addition, the disclosedtechnology allows elimination of unnecessary chatter from the network,benefiting the operators trying to optimize the wireless spectrum usage.

Intelligent Cache Management

By detecting the rate and type of requests to a content source orapplication server (which may be identified by a URI or URL), combinedwith determining the state information of the mobile device (e.g.,whether the backlight is on or off) or the user, the distributed proxysystem (e.g., the local proxy and/or the proxy server) can, for example,determine the difference between content that is programmaticallyrefreshed and content that is requested by the user in the foreground.Using this information, along with the network conditions such as theTCP connection delay and/or Round Trip Time (RTT), current radiocoverage statistics, the disclosed proxy system can determine whether toand when to cache content locally on the mobile device (e.g., anywireless device), to satisfy future content requests. If content isalready cached, then the cached version can be presented to the user. Ifnot, the request is passed through over the mobile network to thecontent server and the retrieved content can be presented.

To preserve user experience, the disclosed distributed proxy system candetermine and utilize the “criticality of an application” as a factor.For example, financial applications may be considered time critical sothat these application requests are not cached but instead allowed to goover the wireless broadband or mobile network to retrieve current data.An application, by name or type, can be considered critical at the timeof provisioning or determined by programmatic observation of userinteraction over time. That is, the sever-side component of thedistributed proxy system can be provisioned with “profiles” whichindicate the criticality of the application. This profile can becommunicated to the device-side component of the proxy system duringinitialization or subsequent establishment of polling requests.

A set of criteria (e.g., including application profile information) canbe applied to content sources/application servers (e.g., each associatedresource or resource identifier) to determine the suitability of relatedcontent for caching (size, etc.). The profile can further be used toidentify applications for which caching will typically not beappropriate, such as the Google Market. Additionally, the pattern (e.g.,periodicity or time interval) of each request as identified by aspecific identifier (e.g., a resource of resource identifier) associatedwith a content source/application server can be monitored by thedistributed system such that polling behavior can be determined, and thecontent cached accordingly.

When content from a content source/application server has beenidentified as suitable for caching, a message can be transmitted to theserver-side component of the disclosed proxy system requesting that thatthe content associated with the content source/application server bemonitored for changes. When the server detects that the content has beenaltered, the server transmits a message to the device-side componentinstructing it to invalidate whatever cache elements are associated withthat URI.

In some instances, memory usage parameters of a mobile device (e.g., asdescribed by the carrier configuration) are factored in when caching. Assuch, the client-side component of the disclosed distributed proxy willusually not use more than the specified percentage of available memoryspace for cache entries (e.g., as specified by the device manufacturer,operating system, applications, etc.). In addition to total memoryusage, the client-side component of the distributed proxy can implementa configurable limit on the total number of cache entries stored acrossmultiple applications or on a per-application basis.

Cache entries stored on the mobile device (e.g., any wireless device)can be aged out automatically by the client-side component of thedistributed proxy as determined, for example, by configurable parameters(e.g., by the user, based on application-need, network service providerrequirements, OS requirements, etc.). Additionally, cache elements maybe removed to remain in compliance with disk usage or entry countrestrictions. In some instances, the client-side component caninvalidate the entire cache storage should the server-side proxy becomeunavailable. In one embodiment, the client-side component of thedistributed proxy system can encrypt cached content.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example diagram of a system where a host server100 facilitates management of traffic, content caching, and/or resourceconservation between clients (e.g., mobile devices, any wireless deviceor clients/applications on client devices 150) and an application serveror content provider 110 in a wireless network (or broad band network)106 or 108 for resource conservation.

The client devices 150 can be any system and/or device, and/or anycombination of devices/systems that is able to establish a connection,including wired, wireless, cellular connections with another device, aserver and/or other systems such as host server 100 and/or applicationserver/content provider 110. Client devices 150 will typically include adisplay and/or other output functionalities to present information anddata exchanged between among the devices 150 and/or the host server 100and/or application server/content provider 110.

For example, the client devices 150 can include mobile, hand held orportable devices, wireless devices, or non-portable devices and can beany of, but not limited to, a server desktop, a desktop computer, acomputer cluster, or portable devices, including a notebook, a laptopcomputer, a handheld computer, a palmtop computer, a mobile phone, acell phone, a smart phone, a PDA, a Blackberry device, a Palm device, ahandheld tablet (e.g., an iPad or any other tablet), a hand heldconsole, a hand held gaming device or console, any SuperPhone such asthe iPhone, and/or any other portable, mobile, hand held devices, orfixed wireless interface such as a M2M device, etc. In one embodiment,the client devices 150, host server 100, and application server 110 arecoupled via a network 106 and/or a network 108. In some embodiments, thedevices 150 and host server 100 may be directly connected to oneanother.

The input mechanism on client devices 150 can include touch screenkeypad (including single touch, multi-touch, gesture sensing in 2D or3D, etc.), a physical keypad, a mouse, a pointer, a track pad, motiondetector (e.g., including 1-axis, 2-axis, 3-axis accelerometer, etc.), alight sensor, capacitance sensor, resistance sensor, temperature sensor,proximity sensor, a piezoelectric device, device orientation detector(e.g., electronic compass, tilt sensor, rotation sensor, gyroscope,accelerometer), or a combination of the above.

Signals received or detected indicating user activity at client devices150 through one or more of the above input mechanism, or others, can beused in the disclosed technology in acquiring context awareness at theclient device 150. Context awareness at client devices 150 generallyincludes, by way of example but not limitation, client device 150operation or state acknowledgement, management, useractivity/behavior/interaction awareness, detection, sensing, tracking,trending, and/or application (e.g., mobile applications) type, behavior,activity, operating state, etc.

Context awareness in the present disclosure also includes knowledge anddetection of network side contextual data and can include networkinformation such as network capacity, bandwidth, traffic, type ofnetwork/connectivity, and/or any other operational state data. Networkside contextual data can be received from and/or queried from networkservice providers (e.g., cell provider 112 and/or Internet serviceproviders) of the network 106 and/or network 108 (e.g., by the hostserver and/or devices 150). In addition to application context awarenessas determined from the client 150 side, the application contextawareness may also be received from or obtained/queried from therespective application/service providers 110 (by the host 100 and/orclient devices 150).

The host server 100 can use, for example, contextual informationobtained for client devices 150, networks 106/108, applications (e.g.,mobile applications), application server/provider 110, or anycombination of the above, to manage the traffic in the system to satisfydata needs of the client devices 150 (e.g., to satisfy application orany other request including HTTP request). In one embodiment, thetraffic is managed by the host server 100 to satisfy data requests madein response to explicit or non-explicit user 103 requests and/ordevice/application maintenance tasks. The traffic can be managed suchthat network consumption, for example, use of the cellular network isconserved for effective and efficient bandwidth utilization. Inaddition, the host server 100 can manage and coordinate such traffic inthe system such that use of device 150 side resources (e.g., includingbut not limited to battery power consumption, radio use,processor/memory use) are optimized with a general philosophy forresource conservation while still optimizing performance and userexperience.

For example, in context of battery conservation, the device 150 canobserve user activity (for example, by observing user keystrokes,backlight status, or other signals via one or more input mechanisms,etc.) and alters device 150 behaviors. The device 150 can also requestthe host server 100 to alter the behavior for network resourceconsumption based on user activity or behavior.

In one embodiment, the traffic management for resource conservation isperformed using a distributed system between the host server 100 andclient device 150. The distributed system can include proxy server andcache components on the server side 100 and on the device/client side,for example, as shown by the server cache 135 on the server 100 side andthe local cache 185 on the client 150 side.

Functions and techniques disclosed for context aware traffic managementfor resource conservation in networks (e.g., network 106 and/or 108) anddevices 150, reside in a distributed proxy and cache system. The proxyand cache system can be distributed between, and reside on, a givenclient device 150 in part or in whole and/or host server 100 in part orin whole. The distributed proxy and cache system are illustrated withfurther reference to the example diagram shown in FIG. 1B. Functions andtechniques performed by the proxy and cache components in the clientdevice 150, the host server 100, and the related components therein aredescribed, respectively, in detail with further reference to theexamples of FIG. 2-3.

In one embodiment, client devices 150 communicate with the host server100 and/or the application server 110 over network 106, which can be acellular network and/or a broadband network. To facilitate overalltraffic management between devices 150 and various applicationservers/content providers 110 to implement network (bandwidthutilization) and device resource (e.g., battery consumption), the hostserver 100 can communicate with the application server/providers 110over the network 108, which can include the Internet (e.g., a broadbandnetwork).

In general, the networks 106 and/or 108, over which the client devices150, the host server 100, and/or application server 110 communicate, maybe a cellular network, a broadband network, a telephonic network, anopen network, such as the Internet, or a private network, such as anintranet and/or the extranet, or any combination thereof. For example,the Internet can provide file transfer, remote log in, email, news, RSS,cloud-based services, instant messaging, visual voicemail, push mail,VoIP, and other services through any known or convenient protocol, suchas, but is not limited to the TCP/IP protocol, UDP, HTTP, DNS, FTP,UPnP, NSF, ISDN, PDH, RS-232, SDH, SONET, etc.

The networks 106 and/or 108 can be any collection of distinct networksoperating wholly or partially in conjunction to provide connectivity tothe client devices 150 and the host server 100 and may appear as one ormore networks to the serviced systems and devices. In one embodiment,communications to and from the client devices 150 can be achieved by, anopen network, such as the Internet, or a private network, broadbandnetwork, such as an intranet and/or the extranet. In one embodiment,communications can be achieved by a secure communications protocol, suchas secure sockets layer (SSL), or transport layer security (TLS).

In addition, communications can be achieved via one or more networks,such as, but are not limited to, one or more of WiMax, a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a Personal areanetwork (PAN), a Campus area network (CAN), a Metropolitan area network(MAN), a Wide area network (WAN), a Wireless wide area network (WWAN),or any broadband network, and further enabled with technologies such as,by way of example, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),Personal Communications Service (PCS), Bluetooth, WiFi, Fixed WirelessData, 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, IMT-Advanced, pre-4G, LTE Advanced, mobileWiMax, WiMax 2, WirelessMAN-Advanced networks, enhanced data rates forGSM evolution (EDGE), General packet radio service (GPRS), enhancedGPRS, iBurst, UMTS, HSPDA, HSUPA, HSPA, UMTS-TDD, 1xRTT, EV-DO,messaging protocols such as, TCP/IP, SMS, MMS, extensible messaging andpresence protocol (XMPP), real time messaging protocol (RTMP), instantmessaging and presence protocol (IMPP), instant messaging, USSD, IRC, orany other wireless data networks, broadband networks, or messagingprotocols.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example diagram of a proxy and cache systemdistributed between the host server 100 and device 150 which facilitatesnetwork traffic management between the device 150 and an applicationserver/content provider 100 (e.g., a source server) for resourceconservation and content caching.

The distributed proxy and cache system can include, for example, theproxy server 125 (e.g., remote proxy) and the server cache 135components on the server side. The server-side proxy 125 and cache 135can, as illustrated, reside internal to the host server 100. Inaddition, the proxy server 125 and cache 135 on the server-side can bepartially or wholly external to the host server 100 and in communicationvia one or more of the networks 106 and 108. For example, the proxyserver 125 may be external to the host server and the server cache 135may be maintained at the host server 100. Alternatively, the proxyserver 125 may be within the host server 100 while the server cache isexternal to the host server 100. In addition, each of the proxy server125 and the cache 135 may be partially internal to the host server 100and partially external to the host server 100.

The distributed system can also, include, in one embodiment, client-sidecomponents, including by way of example but not limitation, a localproxy 175 (e.g., a mobile client on a mobile device) and/or a localcache 185, which can, as illustrated, reside internal to the device 150(e.g., a mobile device).

In addition, the client-side proxy 175 and local cache 185 can bepartially or wholly external to the device 150 and in communication viaone or more of the networks 106 and 108. For example, the local proxy175 may be external to the device 150 and the local cache 185 may bemaintained at the device 150. Alternatively, the local proxy 175 may bewithin the device 150 while the local cache 185 is external to thedevice 150. In addition, each of the proxy 175 and the cache 185 may bepartially internal to the host server 100 and partially external to thehost server 100.

In one embodiment, the distributed system can include an optionalcaching proxy server 199. The caching proxy server 199 can be acomponent which is operated by the application server/content provider110, the host server 100, or a network service provider 112, and or anycombination of the above to facilitate network traffic management fornetwork and device resource conservation. Proxy server 199 can be used,for example, for caching content to be provided to the device 150, forexample, from one or more of, the application server/provider 110, hostserver 100, and/or a network service provider 112. Content caching canalso be entirely or partially performed by the remote proxy 125 tosatisfy application requests or other data requests at the device 150.

In context aware traffic management and optimization for resourceconservation in a network (e.g., cellular or other wireless networks),characteristics of user activity/behavior and/or application behavior ata mobile device (e.g., any wireless device) 150 can be tracked by thelocal proxy 175 and communicated, over the network 106 to the proxyserver 125 component in the host server 100, for example, as connectionmetadata. The proxy server 125 which in turn is coupled to theapplication server/provider 110 provides content and data to satisfyrequests made at the device 150.

In addition, the local proxy 175 can identify and retrieve mobile deviceproperties, including one or more of, battery level, network that thedevice is registered on, radio state, or whether the mobile device isbeing used (e.g., interacted with by a user). In some instances, thelocal proxy 175 can delay, expedite (prefetch), and/or modify data priorto transmission to the proxy server 125, when appropriate, as will befurther detailed with references to the description associated with theexamples of FIG. 2-3.

The local database 185 can be included in the local proxy 175 or coupledto the local proxy 175 and can be queried for a locally stored responseto the data request prior to the data request being forwarded on to theproxy server 125. Locally cached responses can be used by the localproxy 175 to satisfy certain application requests of the mobile device150, by retrieving cached content stored in the cache storage 185, whenthe cached content is still valid.

Similarly, the proxy server 125 of the host server 100 can also delay,expedite, or modify data from the local proxy prior to transmission tothe content sources (e.g., the application server/content provider 110).In addition, the proxy server 125 uses device properties and connectionmetadata to generate rules for satisfying request of applications on themobile device 150. The proxy server 125 can gather real time trafficinformation about requests of applications for later use in optimizingsimilar connections with the mobile device 150 or other mobile devices.

In general, the local proxy 175 and the proxy server 125 are transparentto the multiple applications executing on the mobile device. The localproxy 175 is generally transparent to the operating system or platformof the mobile device and may or may not be specific to devicemanufacturers. In some instances, the local proxy 175 is optionallycustomizable in part or in whole to be device specific. In someembodiments, the local proxy 175 may be bundled into a wireless model, afirewall, and/or a router.

In one embodiment, the host server 100 can in some instances, utilizethe store and forward functions of a short message service center (SMSC)112, such as that provided by the network service provider, incommunicating with the device 150 in achieving network trafficmanagement. Note that 112 can also utilize any other type of alternativechannel including USSD or other network control mechanisms. As will befurther described with reference to the example of FIG. 3, the hostserver 100 can forward content or HTTP responses to the SMSC 112 suchthat it is automatically forwarded to the device 150 if available, andfor subsequent forwarding if the device 150 is not currently available.

In general, the disclosed distributed proxy and cache system allowsoptimization of network usage, for example, by serving requests from thelocal cache 185, the local proxy 175 reduces the number of requests thatneed to be satisfied over the network 106. Further, the local proxy 175and the proxy server 125 may filter irrelevant data from thecommunicated data. In addition, the local proxy 175 and the proxy server125 can also accumulate low priority data and send it in batches toavoid the protocol overhead of sending individual data fragments. Thelocal proxy 175 and the proxy server 125 can also compress or transcodethe traffic, reducing the amount of data sent over the network 106and/or 108. The signaling traffic in the network 106 and/or 108 can bereduced, as the networks are now used less often and the network trafficcan be synchronized among individual applications.

With respect to the battery life of the mobile device 150, by servingapplication or content requests from the local cache 185, the localproxy 175 can reduce the number of times the radio module is powered up.The local proxy 175 and the proxy server 125 can work in conjunction toaccumulate low priority data and send it in batches to reduce the numberof times and/or amount of time when the radio is powered up. The localproxy 175 can synchronize the network use by performing the batched datatransfer for all connections simultaneously.

FIG. 2A depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of client-sidecomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system residing on a device250 that manages traffic in a wireless network for resourceconservation, content caching, and/or traffic management.

The device 250, which can be a portable or mobile device (e.g., anywireless device), such as a portable phone, generally includes, forexample, a network interface 208208 an operating system 204, a contextAPI 206, and mobile applications which may be proxy-unaware 210 orproxy-aware 220. Note that the device 250 is specifically illustrated inthe example of FIG. 2 as a mobile device, such is not a limitation andthat device 250 may be any portable/mobile or non-portable device ableto receive, transmit signals to satisfy data requests over a networkincluding wired or wireless networks (e.g., WiFi, cellular, Bluetooth,etc.).

The network interface 208 can be a networking module that enables thedevice 250 to mediate data in a network with an entity that is externalto the host server 250, through any known and/or convenientcommunications protocol supported by the host and the external entity.The network interface 208 can include one or more of a network adaptorcard, a wireless network interface card (e.g., SMS interface, WiFiinterface, interfaces for various generations of mobile communicationstandards including but not limited to 2G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, LTE, etc.,),Bluetooth, or whether or not the connection is via a router, an accesspoint, a wireless router, a switch, a multilayer switch, a protocolconverter, a gateway, a bridge, a bridge router, a hub, a digital mediareceiver, and/or a repeater.

Device 250 can further include, client-side components of thedistributed proxy and cache system which can include, a local proxy 275(e.g., a mobile client of a mobile device) and a cache 285. In oneembodiment, the local proxy 275 includes a user activity module 215, aproxy API 225, a request/transaction manager 235, a caching policymanager 245 having an application protocol module 248, a traffic shapingengine 255, and/or a connection manager 265. The traffic shaping engine255 may further include an alignment module 256 and/or a batching module257, the connection manager 265 may further include a radio controller266. The request/transaction manager 235 can further include anapplication behavior detector 236 and/or a prioritization engine 241,the application behavior detector 236 may further include a patterndetector 237 and/or and application profile generator 239. Additional orless components/modules/engines can be included in the local proxy 275and each illustrated component.

As used herein, a “module,” “a manager,” a “handler,” a “detector,” an“interface,” a “controller,” a “normalizer,” a “generator,” an“invalidator,” or an “engine” includes a general purpose, dedicated orshared processor and, typically, firmware or software modules that areexecuted by the processor. Depending upon implementation-specific orother considerations, the module, manager, handler, detector, interface,controller, normalizer, generator, invalidator, or engine can becentralized or its functionality distributed. The module, manager,handler, detector, interface, controller, normalizer, generator,invalidator, or engine can include general or special purpose hardware,firmware, or software embodied in a computer-readable (storage) mediumfor execution by the processor.

As used herein, a computer-readable medium or computer-readable storagemedium is intended to include all mediums that are statutory (e.g., inthe United States, under 35 U.S.C.101), and to specifically exclude allmediums that are non-statutory in nature to the extent that theexclusion is necessary for a claim that includes the computer-readable(storage) medium to be valid. Known statutory computer-readable mediumsinclude hardware (e.g., registers, random access memory (RAM),non-volatile (NV) storage, to name a few), but may or may not be limitedto hardware.

In one embodiment, a portion of the distributed proxy and cache systemfor network traffic management resides in or is in communication withdevice 250, including local proxy 275 (mobile client) and/or cache 285.The local proxy 275 can provide an interface on the device 250 for usersto access device applications and services including email, IM, voicemail, visual voicemail, feeds, Internet, games, productivity tools, orother applications, etc.

The proxy 275 is generally application independent and can be used byapplications (e.g., both proxy-aware and proxy-unaware applications 210and 220 or mobile applications) to open TCP connections to a remoteserver (e.g., the server 100 in the examples of FIG. 1A-1B and/or serverproxy 125/325 shown in the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A). In someinstances, the local proxy 275 includes a proxy API 225 which can beoptionally used to interface with proxy-aware applications 220 (orapplications (e.g., mobile applications) on a mobile device (e.g., anywireless device)).

The applications 210 and 220 can generally include any user application,widgets, software, HTTP-based application, web browsers, video or othermultimedia streaming or downloading application, video games, socialnetwork applications, email clients, RSS management applications,application stores, document management applications, productivityenhancement applications, etc. The applications can be provided with thedevice OS, by the device manufacturer, by the network service provider,downloaded by the user, or provided by others.

One embodiment of the local proxy 275 includes or is coupled to acontext API 206, as shown. The context API 206 may be a part of theoperating system 204 or device platform or independent of the operatingsystem 204, as illustrated. The operating system 204 can include anyoperating system including but not limited to, any previous, current,and/or future versions/releases of, Windows Mobile, iOS, Android,Symbian, Palm OS, Brew MP, Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), Blackberry, etc.

The context API 206 may be a plug-in to the operating system 204 or aparticular client/application on the device 250. The context API 206 candetect signals indicative of user or device activity, for example,sensing motion, gesture, device location, changes in device location,device backlight, keystrokes, clicks, activated touch screen, mouseclick or detection of other pointer devices. The context API 206 can becoupled to input devices or sensors on the device 250 to identify thesesignals. Such signals can generally include input received in responseto explicit user input at an input device/mechanism at the device 250and/or collected from ambient signals/contextual cues detected at or inthe vicinity of the device 250 (e.g., light, motion, piezoelectric,etc.).

In one embodiment, the user activity module 215 interacts with thecontext API 206 to identify, determine, infer, detect, compute, predict,and/or anticipate, characteristics of user activity on the device 250.Various inputs collected by the context API 206 can be aggregated by theuser activity module 215 to generate a profile for characteristics ofuser activity. Such a profile can be generated by the user activitymodule 215 with various temporal characteristics. For instance, useractivity profile can be generated in real-time for a given instant toprovide a view of what the user is doing or not doing at a given time(e.g., defined by a time window, in the last minute, in the last 30seconds, etc.), a user activity profile can also be generated for a‘session’ defined by an application or web page that describes thecharacteristics of user behavior with respect to a specific task theyare engaged in on the device 250, or for a specific time period (e.g.,for the last 2 hours, for the last 5 hours).

Additionally, characteristic profiles can be generated by the useractivity module 215 to depict a historical trend for user activity andbehavior (e.g., 1 week, 1 mo., 2 mo., etc.). Such historical profilescan also be used to deduce trends of user behavior, for example, accessfrequency at different times of day, trends for certain days of the week(weekends or week days), user activity trends based on location data(e.g., IP address, GPS, or cell tower coordinate data) or changes inlocation data (e.g., user activity based on user location, or useractivity based on whether the user is on the go, or traveling outside ahome region, etc.) to obtain user activity characteristics.

In one embodiment, user activity module 215 can detect and track useractivity with respect to applications, documents, files, windows, icons,and folders on the device 250. For example, the user activity module 215can detect when an application or window (e.g., a web browser or anyother type of application) has been exited, closed, minimized,maximized, opened, moved into the foreground, or into the background,multimedia content playback, etc.

In one embodiment, characteristics of the user activity on the device250 can be used to locally adjust behavior of the device (e.g., mobiledevice or any wireless device) to optimize its resource consumption suchas battery/power consumption and more generally, consumption of otherdevice resources including memory, storage, and processing power. In oneembodiment, the use of a radio on a device can be adjusted based oncharacteristics of user behavior (e.g., by the radio controller 266 ofthe connection manager 265) coupled to the user activity module 215. Forexample, the radio controller 266 can turn the radio on or off, based oncharacteristics of the user activity on the device 250. In addition, theradio controller 266 can adjust the power mode of the radio (e.g., to bein a higher power mode or lower power mode) depending on characteristicsof user activity.

In one embodiment, characteristics of the user activity on device 250can also be used to cause another device (e.g., other computers, amobile device, a wireless device, or a non-portable device) or server(e.g., host server 100 and 300 in the examples of FIG. 1A-B and FIG. 3A)which can communicate (e.g., via a cellular or other network) with thedevice 250 to modify its communication frequency with the device 250.The local proxy 275 can use the characteristics information of userbehavior determined by the user activity module 215 to instruct theremote device as to how to modulate its communication frequency (e.g.,decreasing communication frequency, such as data push frequency if theuser is idle, requesting that the remote device notify the device 250 ifnew data, changed, data, or data of a certain level of importancebecomes available, etc.).

In one embodiment, the user activity module 215 can, in response todetermining that user activity characteristics indicate that a user isactive after a period of inactivity, request that a remote device (e.g.,server host server 100 and 300 in the examples of FIG. 1A-B and FIG. 3A)send the data that was buffered as a result of the previously decreasedcommunication frequency.

In addition, or in alternative, the local proxy 275 can communicate thecharacteristics of user activity at the device 250 to the remote device(e.g., host server 100 and 300 in the examples of FIG. 1A-B and FIG. 3A)and the remote device determines how to alter its own communicationfrequency with the device 250 for network resource conservation andconservation of device 250 resources.

One embodiment of the local proxy 275 further includes arequest/transaction manager 235, which can detect, identify, intercept,process, manage, data requests initiated on the device 250, for example,by applications 210 and/or 220, and/or directly/indirectly by a userrequest. The request/transaction manager 235 can determine how and whento process a given request or transaction, or a set ofrequests/transactions, based on transaction characteristics.

The request/transaction manager 235 can prioritize requests ortransactions made by applications and/or users at the device 250, forexample by the prioritization engine 241. Importance or priority ofrequests/transactions can be determined by the request/transactionmanager 235 by applying a rule set, for example, according to timesensitivity of the transaction, time sensitivity of the content in thetransaction, time criticality of the transaction, time criticality ofthe data transmitted in the transaction, and/or time criticality orimportance of an application making the request.

In addition, transaction characteristics can also depend on whether thetransaction was a result of user-interaction or other user-initiatedaction on the device (e.g., user interaction with a application (e.g., amobile application)). In general, a time critical transaction caninclude a transaction resulting from a user-initiated data transfer, andcan be prioritized as such. Transaction characteristics can also dependon the amount of data that will be transferred or is anticipated to betransferred as a result of the requested transaction. For example, theconnection manager 265, can adjust the radio mode (e.g., high power orlow power mode via the radio controller 266) based on the amount of datathat will need to be transferred.

In addition, the radio controller 266/connection manager 265 can adjustthe radio power mode (high or low) based on time criticality/sensitivityof the transaction. The radio controller 266 can trigger the use of highpower radio mode when a time-critical transaction (e.g., a transactionresulting from a user-initiated data transfer, an application running inthe foreground, any other event meeting a certain criteria) is initiatedor detected.

In general, the priorities can be set by default, for example, based ondevice platform, device manufacturer, operating system, etc. Prioritiescan alternatively or in additionally be set by the particularapplication; for example, the Facebook application (e.g., a mobileapplication) can set its own priorities for various transactions (e.g.,a status update can be of higher priority than an add friend request ora poke request, a message send request can be of higher priority than amessage delete request, for example), an email client or IM chat clientmay have its own configurations for priority. The prioritization engine241 may include set of rules for assigning priority.

The prioritization engine 241 can also track network providerlimitations or specifications on application or transaction priority indetermining an overall priority status for a request/transaction.Furthermore, priority can in part or in whole be determined by userpreferences, either explicit or implicit. A user, can in general, setpriorities at different tiers, such as, specific priorities forsessions, or types, or applications (e.g., a browsing session, a gamingsession, versus an IM chat session, the user may set a gaming session toalways have higher priority than an IM chat session, which may havehigher priority than web-browsing session). A user can setapplication-specific priorities, (e.g., a user may set Facebook-relatedtransactions to have a higher priority than LinkedIn-relatedtransactions), for specific transaction types (e.g., for all sendmessage requests across all applications to have higher priority thanmessage delete requests, for all calendar-related events to have a highpriority, etc.), and/or for specific folders.

The prioritization engine 241 can track and resolve conflicts inpriorities set by different entities. For example, manual settingsspecified by the user may take precedence over device OS settings,network provider parameters/limitations (e.g., set in default for anetwork service area, geographic locale, set for a specific time of day,or set based on service/fee type) may limit any user-specified settingsand/or application-set priorities. In some instances, a manualsynchronization request received from a user can override some, most, orall priority settings in that the requested synchronization is performedwhen requested, regardless of the individually assigned priority or anoverall priority ranking for the requested action.

Priority can be specified and tracked internally in any known and/orconvenient manner, including but not limited to, a binaryrepresentation, a multi-valued representation, a graded representationand all are considered to be within the scope of the disclosedtechnology.

TABLE I Change Change (initiated on device) Priority (initiated onserver) Priority Send email High Receive email High Delete email LowEdit email Often not (Un)read email Low possible to sync (Low ifpossible) Move message Low New email in deleted Low Read more High itemsDownload High Delete an email Low attachment (Un)Read an email Low NewCalendar event High Move messages Low Edit/change Calendar High Anycalendar change High event Any contact change High Add a contact HighWipe/lock device High Edit a contact High Settings change High Searchcontacts High Any folder change High Change a setting High Connectorrestart High (if no Manual send/receive High changes nothing is sent) IMstatus change Medium Social Network Medium Status Updates Auction outbidor High Sever Weather Alerts High change notification Weather UpdatesLow News Updates Low

Table I above shows, for illustration purposes, some examples oftransactions with examples of assigned priorities in a binaryrepresentation scheme. Additional assignments are possible foradditional types of events, requests, transactions, and as previouslydescribed, priority assignments can be made at more or less granularlevels, e.g., at the session level or at the application level, etc.

As shown by way of example in the above table, in general, lowerpriority requests/transactions can include, updating message status asbeing read, unread, deleting of messages, deletion of contacts; higherpriority requests/transactions, can in some instances include, statusupdates, new IM chat message, new email, calendar eventupdate/cancellation/deletion, an event in a mobile gaming session, orother entertainment related events, a purchase confirmation through aweb purchase or online, request to load additional or download content,contact book related events, a transaction to change a device setting,location-aware or location-based events/transactions, or any otherevents/request/transactions initiated by a user or where the user isknown to be, expected to be, or suspected to be waiting for a response,etc.

Inbox pruning events (e.g., email, or any other types of messages), aregenerally considered low priority and absent other impending events,generally will not trigger use of the radio on the device 250.Specifically, pruning events to remove old email or other content can be‘piggy backed’ with other communications if the radio is not otherwiseon, at the time of a scheduled pruning event. For example, if the userhas preferences set to ‘keep messages for 7 days old,’ then instead ofpowering on the device radio to initiate a message delete from thedevice 250 the moment that the message has exceeded 7 days old, themessage is deleted when the radio is powered on next. If the radio isalready on, then pruning may occur as regularly scheduled.

The request/transaction manager 235, can use the priorities for requests(e.g., by the prioritization engine 241) to manage outgoing traffic fromthe device 250 for resource optimization (e.g., to utilize the deviceradio more efficiently for battery conservation). For example,transactions/requests below a certain priority ranking may not triggeruse of the radio on the device 250 if the radio is not already switchedon, as controlled by the connection manager 265. In contrast, the radiocontroller 266 can turn on the radio such a request can be sent when arequest for a transaction is detected to be over a certain prioritylevel.

In one embodiment, priority assignments (such as that determined by thelocal proxy 275 or another device/entity) can be used cause a remotedevice to modify its communication with the frequency with the mobiledevice or wireless device. For example, the remote device can beconfigured to send notifications to the device 250 when data of higherimportance is available to be sent to the mobile device or wirelessdevice.

In one embodiment, transaction priority can be used in conjunction withcharacteristics of user activity in shaping or managing traffic, forexample, by the traffic shaping engine 255. For example, the trafficshaping engine 255 can, in response to detecting that a user is dormantor inactive, wait to send low priority transactions from the device 250,for a period of time. In addition, the traffic shaping engine 255 canallow multiple low priority transactions to accumulate for batchtransferring from the device 250 (e.g., via the batching module 257). Inone embodiment, the priorities can be set, configured, or readjusted bya user. For example, content depicted in Table I in the same or similarform can be accessible in a user interface on the device 250 and forexample, used by the user to adjust or view the priorities.

The batching module 257 can initiate batch transfer based on certaincriteria. For example, batch transfer (e.g., of multiple occurrences ofevents, some of which occurred at different instances in time) may occurafter a certain number of low priority events have been detected, orafter an amount of time elapsed after the first of the low priorityevent was initiated. In addition, the batching module 257 can initiatebatch transfer of the cumulated low priority events when a higherpriority event is initiated or detected at the device 250. Batchtransfer can otherwise be initiated when radio use is triggered foranother reason (e.g., to receive data from a remote device such as hostserver 100 or 300). In one embodiment, an impending pruning event(pruning of an inbox), or any other low priority events, can be executedwhen a batch transfer occurs.

In general, the batching capability can be disabled or enabled at theevent/transaction level, application level, or session level, based onany one or combination of the following: user configuration, devicelimitations/settings, manufacturer specification, network providerparameters/limitations, platform-specific limitations/settings, deviceOS settings, etc. In one embodiment, batch transfer can be initiatedwhen an application/window/file is closed out, exited, or moved into thebackground; users can optionally be prompted before initiating a batchtransfer; users can also manually trigger batch transfers.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 locally adjusts radio use on thedevice 250 by caching data in the cache 285. When requests ortransactions from the device 250 can be satisfied by content stored inthe cache 285, the radio controller 266 need not activate the radio tosend the request to a remote entity (e.g., the host server 100, 300, asshown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 3A or a content provider/application serversuch as the server/provider 110 shown in the examples of FIG. 1A andFIG. 1B). As such, the local proxy 275 can use the local cache 285 andthe cache policy manager 245 to locally store data for satisfying datarequests to eliminate or reduce the use of the device radio forconservation of network resources and device battery consumption.

In leveraging the local cache, once the request/transaction manager 225intercepts a data request by an application on the device 250, the localrepository 285 can be queried to determine if there is any locallystored response, and also determine whether the response is valid. Whena valid response is available in the local cache 285, the response canbe provided to the application on the device 250 without the device 250needing to access the cellular network or wireless broadband network.

If a valid response is not available, the local proxy 275 can query aremote proxy (e.g., the server proxy 325 of FIG. 3A) to determinewhether a remotely stored response is valid. If so, the remotely storedresponse (e.g., which may be stored on the server cache 135 or optionalcaching server 199 shown in the example of FIG. 1B) can be provided tothe mobile device, possibly without the mobile device 250 needing toaccess the cellular network, thus relieving consumption of networkresources.

If a valid cache response is not available, or if cache responses areunavailable for the intercepted data request, the local proxy 275, forexample, the caching policy manager 245, can send the data request to aremote proxy (e.g., server proxy 325 of FIG. 3A) which forwards the datarequest to a content source (e.g., application server/content provider110 of FIG. 1A) and a response from the content source can be providedthrough the remote proxy, as will be further described in thedescription associated with the example host server 300 of FIG. 3A. Thecache policy manager 245 can manage or process requests that use avariety of protocols, including but not limited to HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP,POP, SMTP, XMPP, and/or ActiveSync. The caching policy manager 245 canlocally store responses for data requests in the local database 285 ascache entries, for subsequent use in satisfying same or similar datarequests.

The caching policy manager 245 can request that the remote proxy monitorresponses for the data request and the remote proxy can notify thedevice 250 when an unexpected response to the data request is detected.In such an event, the cache policy manager 245 can erase or replace thelocally stored response(s) on the device 250 when notified of theunexpected response (e.g., new data, changed data, additional data,etc.) to the data request. In one embodiment, the caching policy manager245 is able to detect or identify the protocol used for a specificrequest, including but not limited to HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP, POP, SMTP,XMPP, and/or ActiveSync. In one embodiment, application specifichandlers (e.g., via the application protocol module 246 of the cachingpolicy manager 245) on the local proxy 275 allows for optimization ofany protocol that can be port mapped to a handler in the distributedproxy (e.g., port mapped on the proxy server 325 in the example of FIG.3A).

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 notifies the remote proxy suchthat the remote proxy can monitor responses received for the datarequest from the content source for changed results prior to returningthe result to the device 250, for example, when the data request to thecontent source has yielded same results to be returned to the mobiledevice. In general, the local proxy 275 can simulate application serverresponses for applications on the device 250, using locally cachedcontent. This can prevent utilization of the cellular network fortransactions where new/changed data is not available, thus freeing upnetwork resources and preventing network congestion.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 includes an application behaviordetector 236 to track, detect, observe, monitor, applications (e.g.,proxy-aware and/or unaware applications 210 and 220) accessed orinstalled on the device 250. Application behaviors, or patterns indetected behaviors (e.g., via the pattern detector 237) of one or moreapplications accessed on the device 250 can be used by the local proxy275 to optimize traffic in a wireless network needed to satisfy the dataneeds of these applications.

For example, based on detected behavior of multiple applications, thetraffic shaping engine 255 can align content requests made by at leastsome of the applications over the network (wireless network) (e.g., viathe alignment module 256). The alignment module 256 can delay orexpedite some earlier received requests to achieve alignment. Whenrequests are aligned, the traffic shaping engine 255 can utilize theconnection manager to poll over the network to satisfy application datarequests. Content requests for multiple applications can be alignedbased on behavior patterns or rules/settings including, for example,content types requested by the multiple applications (audio, video,text, etc.), device (e.g., mobile or wireless device) parameters, and/ornetwork parameters/traffic conditions, network service providerconstraints/specifications, etc.

In one embodiment, the pattern detector 237 can detect recurrences inapplication requests made by the multiple applications, for example, bytracking patterns in application behavior. A tracked pattern caninclude, detecting that certain applications, as a background process,poll an application server regularly, at certain times of day, oncertain days of the week, periodically in a predictable fashion, with acertain frequency, with a certain frequency in response to a certaintype of event, in response to a certain type user query, frequency thatrequested content is the same, frequency with which a same request ismade, interval between requests, applications making a request, or anycombination of the above, for example.

Such recurrences can be used by traffic shaping engine 255 to offloadpolling of content from a content source (e.g., from an applicationserver/content provider 110 of FIG. 1A) that would result from theapplication requests that would be performed at the mobile device orwireless device 250 to be performed instead, by a proxy server (e.g.,proxy server 125 of FIG. 1B or proxy server 325 of FIG. 3A) remote fromthe device 250. Traffic shaping engine 255 can decide to offload thepolling when the recurrences match a rule. For example, there aremultiple occurrences or requests for the same resource that have exactlythe same content, or returned value, or based on detection of repeatabletime periods between requests and responses such as a resource that isrequested at specific times during the day. The offloading of thepolling can decrease the amount of bandwidth consumption needed by themobile device 250 to establish a wireless (cellular or other wirelessbroadband) connection with the content source for repetitive contentpolls.

As a result of the offloading of the polling, locally cached contentstored in the local cache 285 can be provided to satisfy data requestsat the device 250, when content change is not detected in the polling ofthe content sources. As such, when data has not changed, applicationdata needs can be satisfied without needing to enable radio use oroccupying cellular bandwidth in a wireless network. When data haschanged and/or new data has been received, the remote entity to whichpolling is offloaded, can notify the device 250. The remote entity maybe the host server 300 as shown in the example of FIG. 3A.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 can mitigate the need/use ofperiodic keep-alive messages (heartbeat messages) to maintain TCP/IPconnections, which can consume significant amounts of power thus havingdetrimental impacts on mobile device battery life. The connectionmanager 265 in the local proxy (e.g., the heartbeat manager 267) candetect, identify, and intercept any or all heartbeat (keep-alive)messages being sent from applications.

The heartbeat manager 267 can prevent any or all of these heartbeatmessages from being sent over the cellular, or other network, andinstead rely on the server component of the distributed proxy system(e.g., shown in FIG. 1B) to generate the and send the heartbeat messagesto maintain a connection with the backend (e.g., applicationserver/provider 110 in the example of FIG. 1A).

The local proxy 275 generally represents any one or a portion of thefunctions described for the individual managers, modules, and/orengines. The local proxy 275 and device 250 can include additional orless components; more or less functions can be included, in whole or inpart, without deviating from the novel art of the disclosure.

FIG. 2B depicts a block diagram illustrating another example ofcomponents in the application behavior detector 236 and the cachingpolicy manager 245 in the local proxy 275 on the client-side of thedistributed proxy system shown in the example of FIG. 2A.

In one embodiment, the caching policy manager 245 includes a cacheappropriateness decision engine 246, a poll schedule generator 247, anapplication protocol module 248, a cache or connect selection engine 249and/or a local cache invalidator 244. The cache appropriateness decisionengine 246 can further include a timing predictor 246 a and/or a contentpredictor 246 b and the cache or connect selection engine 249 includes aresponse scheduler 249 a. One embodiment of caching policy manager 245includes an application cache policy repository 243.

In one embodiment, the application behavior detector 236 includes apattern detector 237, a poll interval detector 238, an applicationprofile generator 239, and/or a priority engine 241. The poll intervaldetector 238 may further include a long poll detector 238 a having aresponse/request tracking engine 238 b. The poll interval detector 238may further include a long poll hunting detector 238 c. The applicationprofile generator 239 can further include a response delay intervaltracker 239 a.

The pattern detector 237, application profile generator 239, and thepriority engine 241 were also described in association with thedescription of the pattern detector shown in the example of FIG. 2A. Oneembodiment further includes an application profile repository 242 whichcan be used by the local proxy 275 to store information or metadataregarding application profiles (e.g., behavior, patterns, type of HTTPrequests, etc.)

The cache appropriateness decision engine 246 can detect, assess, ordetermine, whether content from a content source (e.g., applicationserver/content provider 110 in the example of FIG. 1B) with which amobile device (e.g., any wireless device) 250 interacts, has contentthat may be suitable for caching. In some instances, content from agiven application server/content provider (e.g., the server/contentprovider 110 of FIG. 1B) is determined to be suitable for caching basedon a set of criteria, for example, criteria specifying time criticalityof the content that is being requested from the content source. In oneembodiment, the local proxy (e.g., the local proxy 175 or 275 of FIG. 1Band FIG. 2A) applies a selection criteria to store the content from thehost server which is requested by an application as cached elements in alocal cache on the mobile device to satisfy subsequent requests made bythe application.

The cache appropriateness decision engine 246, further based on detectedpatterns of requests sent from the mobile device 250 (e.g., by aapplication (e.g., a mobile application) or other types of clients onthe device 250) and/or patterns of received responses can detectpredictability in requests and/or responses. If the requests are madewith some identifiable pattern (e.g., regular intervals, intervalshaving a detectable pattern, or trend (e.g., increasing, decreasing,constant) etc.) the timing predictor 246 a can determine that therequests made by a given application on a device is predictable andidentify it to be potentially appropriate for caching, at least from atiming standpoint. An identifiable pattern or trend can generallyinclude any application or client behavior which may be simulated eitherlocally, for example, on the local proxy 275 on the mobile device 250 orsimulated remotely, for example, by the proxy server 325 on the host300, or a combination of local and remote simulation to emulateapplication behavior.

In one embodiment, for a long poll type request, the local proxy 175 canbegin to cache responses on a third request when the response delaytimes for the first two responses are the same, substantially the same,or detected to be increasing in intervals. In general, the receivedresponses for the first two responses should be the same, and uponverifying that the third response received for the third request is thesame (e.g., if R0=R1=R2), the third response can be locally cached onthe mobile device. Less or more same responses may be required to begincaching, depending on the type of application, type of data, type ofcontent, or user preferences, or carrier/network operatorspecifications.

Increasing response delays with same responses for long polls canindicate a hunting period (e.g., a period in which theapplication/client on the mobile device is seeking the longest timebetween a request and response that a given network will allow, a timingdiagram showing timing characteristics is illustrated in FIG. 8), asdetected by the long poll hunting detector 238 c of the applicationbehavior detector 236.

An example can be described below using T0, T1, T2, where T indicatesthe delay time between when a request is sent and when a response (e.g.,the response header) is detected/received for consecutive requests:T0=Response0(t)−Request0(t)=180 s. (+/−tolerance)T1=Response1(t)−Request1(t)=240 s. (+/−tolerance)T2=Response2(t)−Request2(t)=500 s. (+/−tolerance)

In the example timing sequence shown above, T0<T1<T2, this may indicatea hunting pattern for a long poll when network timeout has not yet beenreached or exceeded. Furthermore, if the responses R0, R1, and R2received for the three requests are the same, R2 can be cached. In thisexample, R2 is cached during the long poll hunting period, withoutwaiting for the long poll to settle, thus expediting response caching(e.g., this is optional accelerated caching behavior which can beimplemented for all or select applications).

As such, the local proxy 275 can specify information that can beextracted from the timing sequence shown above (e.g., polling schedule,polling interval, polling type) to the proxy server and begin cachingand to request the proxy server to begin polling and monitoring thesource (e.g., using any of T0, T1, T2 as polling intervals but typicallyT2, or the largest detected interval without timing out, and for whichresponses from the source is received will be sent to the proxy server325 of FIG. 3A for use in polling the content source (e.g., applicationserver/service provider 310)).

However, if the time intervals are detected to be getting shorter, theapplication (e.g., a mobile application)/client may still be hunting fora time interval for which a response can be reliably received from thecontent source (e.g., application/server server/provider 110 or 310),and as such caching typically should not begin until therequest/response intervals indicate the same time interval or anincreasing time interval, for example, for a long poll type request.

An example of handling a detected decreasing delay can be describedbelow using T0, T1, T2, T3, and T4 where T indicates the delay timebetween when a request is sent and when a response (e.g., the responseheader) is detected/received for consecutive requests:T0=Response0(t)−Request0(t)=180 s. (+/−tolerance)T1=Response1(t)−Request1(t)=240 s. (+/−tolerance)T2=Response2(t)−Request2(t)=500 s. (+/−tolerance)T3=Time out at 700 s. (+/−tolerance)T4=Response4(t)−Request4(t)=600 (+/−tolerance)

If a pattern for response delays T1<T2<T3>T4 is detected, as shown inthe above timing sequence, (e.g., detected by the long poll huntingdetector 238 c of the application behavior detector 236), it can bedetermined that T3 likely exceeded the network time out during a longpoll hunting period. In Request 3, a response likely was not receivedsince the connection was terminated by the network, application, server,or other reason before a response was sent or available. On Request 4(after T4), if a response (e.g., Response 4) is detected or received,the local proxy 275 can then use the response for caching (if thecontent repeatability condition is met). The local proxy can also use T4as the poll interval in the polling schedule set for the proxy server tomonitor/poll the content source.

Note that the above description shows that caching can begin while longpolls are in hunting mode in the event of detecting increasing responsedelays, as long as responses are received and not timed out for a givenrequest. This can be referred to as the optional accelerated cachingduring long poll hunting. Caching can also begin after the hunting mode(e.g., after the poll requests have settled to a constant or nearconstant delay value) has completed. Note that hunting may or may notoccur for long polls and when hunting occurs, the proxy 275 cangenerally detect this and determine whether to begin to cache during thehunting period (increasing intervals with same responses) or wait untilthe hunt settles to a stable value.

In one embodiment, the timing predictor 246 a of the cacheappropriateness decision engine 246 can track timing of responsesreceived from outgoing requests from a application (e.g., a mobileapplication) or client, to detect any identifiable patterns which can bepartially wholly reproducible, such that locally cached responses can beprovided to the requesting client on the mobile device 250 in a mannerthat simulates content source (e.g., application server/content provider110 or 310) behavior. For example, the manner in which (e.g., from atiming standpoint) responses or content would be delivered to therequesting application/client on the device 250. This ensurespreservation of user experience when responses to application or mobileclient requests are served from a local and/or remote cache instead ofbeing retrieved/received directly from the content source (e.g.,application, content provider 110 or 310).

In one embodiment, the decision engine 246 or the timing predictor 246 adetermines the timing characteristics a given application (e.g., amobile application) or client from, for example, the request/responsetracking engine 238 a and/or the application profile generator 239(e.g., the response delay interval tracker 239 a). Using the timingcharacteristics, the predictor 246 a determines whether the contentreceived in response to the requests are suitable or are potentiallysuitable for caching. For example, poll request intervals between twoconsecutive requests from a given application can be used to determinewhether request intervals are repeatable (e.g., constant, near constant,increasing with a pattern, decreasing with a pattern, etc.) and can bepredicted and thus reproduced at least some of the times either exactlyor approximated within a tolerance level.

In some instances, the timing characteristics of a given request typefor a specific application, or for multiple requests of an application,or for multiple applications can be stored in the application profilerepository 242. The application profile repository 242 can generallystore any type of information or metadata regarding applicationrequest/response characteristics including timing patterns, timingrepeatability, content repeatability, etc.

The application profile repository 242 can also store metadataindicating the type of request used by a given application (e.g., longpolls, long-held HTTP requests, HTTP streaming, push, COMET push, etc.)Application profiles indicating request type by applications can be usedwhen subsequent same/similar requests are detected, or when requests aredetected from an application which has already been categorized. In thismanner, timing characteristics for the given request type or forrequests of a specific application which has been tracked and/oranalyzed, need not be reanalyzed.

Application profiles can be associated with a time-to-live (e.g., or adefault expiration time). The use of an expiration time for applicationprofiles, or for various aspects of an application or request's profilecan be used on a case by case basis. The time-to-live or actualexpiration time of application profile entries can be set to a defaultvalue or determined individually, or a combination thereof. Applicationprofiles can also be specific to wireless networks, physical networks,network operators, or specific carriers, for example.

A given application profile may also be treated or processed differently(e.g., different behavior of the local proxy 275 and the remote proxy325) depending on the mobile account associated with a mobile devicefrom which the application is being accessed. For example, a higherpaying account, or a premier account may allow more frequent access ofthe wireless network or higher bandwidth allowance thus affecting thecaching policies implemented between the local proxy 275 and proxyserver 325 with an emphasis on better performance compared toconservation of resources. A given application profile may also betreated or processed differently under different wireless networkconditions (e.g., based on congestion or network outage, etc.).

The cache appropriateness decision engine 246 (e.g., the contentpredictor 246 b) can definitively identify repeatability or identifyindications of repeatability, potential repeatability, or predictabilityin responses received from a content source (e.g., the contenthost/application server 110 shown in the example of FIG. 1A-B).Repeatability can be detected by, for example, tracking at least tworesponses received from the content source and determines if the tworesponses are the same. The two responses may or may not be responsessent in response to consecutive requests. In one embodiment, hash valuesof the responses received for requests from a given application are usedto determine repeatability of content (with or without heuristics) forthe application in general and/or for the specific request. Additionalsame responses may be required for some applications or under certaincircumstances.

Repeatability in received content need not be 100% ascertained. Forexample, responses can be determined to be repeatable if a certainnumber or a certain percentage of responses are the same, or similar.The certain number or certain percentage of same/similar responses canbe tracked over a select period of time, set by default or set based onthe application generating the requests (e.g., whether the applicationis highly dynamic with constant updates or less dynamic with infrequentupdates). Any indicated predictability or repeatability, or possiblerepeatability can be utilized by the distributed system in cachingcontent to be provided to a requesting application or client on themobile device 250,

Note that cache appropriateness can be determined, tracked, and managedfor multiple clients or applications on the mobile device 250. Cacheappropriateness can also be determined for different requests or requesttypes initiated by a given client or application on the mobile device250. The caching policy manager 245, along with the timing predictor 246a and/or the content predictor 246 b which heuristically determines orestimates predictability or potential predictability, can track, manageand store cacheability information for various application or variousrequests for a given application. Cacheability information may alsoinclude conditions (e.g., an application can be cached at certain timesof the day, or certain days of the week, or certain requests of a givenapplication can be cached, or all requests with a given destinationaddress can be cached) under which caching is appropriate which can bedetermined and/or tracked by the cache appropriateness decision engine246 and stored and/or updated when appropriate in the application cachepolicy repository 243 coupled to the cache appropriateness decisionengine 246.

The information in the application cache policy repository 243 regardingcacheability of requests, applications, and/or associated conditions canbe used later on when same requests are detected. In this manner, thedecision engine 246, and/or the timing and content predictors 246 a/bneed not track and reanalyze request/response timing and contentcharacteristics to make an assessment regarding cacheability. Inaddition, the cacheability information can in some instances be sharedwith local proxies of other mobile devices, by way of directcommunication or via the host server (e.g., proxy server 325 of hostserver 300).

For example, cacheability information detected by the local proxy 275 onvarious mobile devices can be sent to a remote host server or a proxyserver 325 on the host server (e.g., host server 300 or proxy server 325shown in the example of FIG. 3A, host 100 and proxy server 125 in theexample of FIG. 1A-B). The remote host or proxy server can thendistribute the information regarding application-specific,request-specific cacheability information and/or any associatedconditions to various mobile devices or their local proxies in awireless network or across multiple wireless networks (same serviceprovider or multiple wireless service providers) for their use.

The selection criteria can further include, by way of example, but notlimitation, state of the mobile device indicating whether the mobiledevice is active or inactive, network conditions, and/or radio coveragestatistics. The cache appropriateness decision engine 246 can any one orany combination of the criteria, and in any order, in identifyingsources for which caching may be suitable.

Once application servers/content providers having identified or detectedcontent that is potentially suitable for local caching on the mobiledevice 250, the cache policy manager 245 can proceed to cache theassociated content received from the identified sources by storingcontent received from the content source as cache elements in a localcache (e.g., local cache 185 or 285 shown in the examples of FIG. 1B andFIG. 2A, respectively) on the mobile device 250. The content source canalso be identified to a proxy server (e.g., proxy server 125 or 325shown in the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A, respectively) remote fromand in wireless communication with the mobile device 250 such that theproxy server can monitor the content source (e.g., applicationserver/content provider 110) for new or changed data. Similarly, thelocal proxy (e.g., the local proxy 175 or 275 of FIG. 1B and FIG. 2A,respectively) can identify to the proxy server that content receivedfrom a specific application server/content provider is being stored ascached elements in the local cache.

Once content has been locally cached, the cache policy manager 245 can,upon receiving future polling requests to contact the applicationserver/content host (e.g., 110 or 310), can retrieve the cached elementsfrom the local cache to respond to the polling request made at themobile device 250 such that a radio of the mobile device is notactivated to service the polling request. Such servicing and fulfillingapplication (e.g., a mobile application) requests locally via a localcache entries allow for more efficient resource and mobile networktraffic utilization and management since network bandwidth and otherresources need not be used to request/receive poll responses which mayhave not changed from a response that has already been received at themobile device 250.

For example, the local proxy 275, upon receipt of an outgoing requestfrom its mobile device 250 or from an application or other type ofclient on the mobile device 250 can intercept the request and determinewhether a cached response is available in the local cache 285 of themobile device 250. If so, the outgoing request is responded to, by thelocal proxy 275 using the cached response on the cache of the mobiledevice. As such, the outgoing request can be filled or satisfied withouta need to send the outgoing request over the wireless network, thusconserving network resources and battery consumption.

In one embodiment, the responding to the requesting application/clienton the device 250 is timed to correspond to a manner in which thecontent server would have responded to the outgoing request over apersistent connection (e.g., over the persistent connection, orlong-held HTTP connection, long poll type connection, that would havebeen established absent interception by the local proxy). The timing ofthe response can be emulated or simulated by the local proxy 275 topreserve application behavior such that end user experience is notaffected, or minimally affected by serving stored content from the localcache 285 rather than fresh content received from the intended contentsource (e.g., content host/application server 110 of FIG. 1A-B). Thetiming can be replicated exactly or estimated within a toleranceparameter, which may go unnoticed by the user or treated similarly bythe application so as to not cause operation issues.

For example, the outgoing request can be a request for a persistentconnection intended for the content server (e.g., applicationserver/content provider of examples of FIG. 1A-1B). In a persistentconnection (e.g., long poll, COMET-style push or any other pushsimulation in asynchronous HTTP requests, long-held HTTP request, HTTPstreaming, or others) with a content source (server), the connection isheld for some time after a request is sent. The connection can typicallybe persisted between the mobile device and the server until content isavailable at the server to be sent to the mobile device. Thus, theretypically can be some delay in time between when a long poll request issent and when a response is received from the content source. If aresponse is not provided by the content source for a certain amount oftime, the connection may also terminate due to network reasons (e.g.,socket closure) if a response is not sent.

Thus, to emulate a response from a content server sent over a persistentconnection (e.g., a long poll style connection), the manner of responseof the content server can be simulated by allowing a time interval toelapse before responding to the outgoing request with the cachedresponse. The length of the time interval can be determined on a requestby request basis or on an application by application (client by clientbasis), for example.

In one embodiment, the time interval is determined based on requestcharacteristics (e.g., timing characteristics) of an application on themobile device from which the outgoing request originates. For example,poll request intervals (e.g., which can be tracked, detected, determinedby the long poll detector 238 a of the poll interval detector 238) canbe used to determine the time interval to wait before responding to arequest with a local cache entry and managed by the response scheduler249 a.

One embodiment of the cache policy manager 245 includes a poll schedulegenerator 247 which can generate a polling schedule for one or moreapplications on the mobile device 250. The polling schedule can specifya polling interval that can be employed by the proxy server (e.g., proxyserver 125 or 325 shown in the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A) inmonitoring the content source for one or more applications. The pollingschedule can be determined, for example, based on the interval betweenthe polling requests directed to the content source from the mobiledevice. In one embodiment, the poll interval detector 238 of theapplication behavior detector 236 can monitor polling requests directedto a content source from the mobile device 250 in order to determine aninterval between the polling requests made from any or all applications(e.g., including mobile applications).

For example, the poll interval detector 238 can track requests andresponses for applications or clients on the device 250. In oneembodiment, consecutive requests are tracked prior to detection of anoutgoing request initiated from the application (e.g., a mobileapplication) on the mobile device 250, by the same mobile client orapplication. In one embodiment, an outgoing request from a mobile device250 is detected to be for a persistent connection (e.g., a long poll,COMET style push, and long-held (HTTP) request) based on timingcharacteristics of prior requests from the same application or client onthe mobile device 250. For example, requests and/or correspondingresponses can be tracked by the request/response tracking engine 238 bof the long poll detector 238 a of the poll interval detector 238.

The timing characteristics of the consecutive requests can be determinedto set up a polling schedule for the application or client. The pollingschedule can be used to monitor the content source (contentsource/application server) for content changes such that cached contentstored on the local cache in the mobile device 250 can be appropriatedmanaged (e.g., updated or discarded). In one embodiment, the timingcharacteristics can include, for example, a response delay time (‘D’)and/or an idle time (‘IT’).

The response delay time and idle time typical of a long poll areillustrated in the timing diagram shown below and also described furtherin detail with references to FIG. 17A-B. In one embodiment, theresponse/request tracking engine 238 b can track requests and responsesto determine, compute, and/or estimate, the timing diagrams forapplicant or client requests.

For example, the response/request tracking engine 238 b detects a firstrequest (Request 0) initiated by a client on the mobile device and asecond request (Request 1) initiated by the client on the mobile deviceafter a response is received at the mobile device responsive to thefirst request. The second request is one that is subsequent to the firstrequest. The relationship between requests can be seen in the followingtiming diagrams of FIG. 17A-17B.

In one embodiment, the response/request tracking engine 238 b can trackrequests and responses to determine, compute, and/or estimate, thetiming diagrams for applicant or client requests. The response/requesttracking engine 238 b can detect a first request initiated by a clienton the mobile device and a second request initiated by the client on themobile device after a response is received at the mobile deviceresponsive to the first request. The second request is one that issubsequent to the first request.

The response/request tracking engine 238 b further determines relativetimings between the first, second requests, and the response received inresponse to the first request. In general, the relative timings can beused by the long poll detector 238 a to determine whether requestsgenerated by the application are long poll requests.

Note that in general, the first and second requests that are used by theresponse/request tracking engine 238 b in computing the relative timingsare selected for use after a long poll hunting period has settled or inthe event when long poll hunting does not occur. Timing characteristicsthat are typical of a long poll hunting period is illustrated in theexample of FIG. 8 and can be, for example, detected by the long pollhunting detector 238 c. In other words, the requests tracked by theresponse/request tracking engine 238 b and used for determining whethera given request is a long poll occurs after the long poll has settled(e.g., shown in 810 of FIG. 8 after the hunting mode 805 has completed).

In one embodiment, the long poll hunting detector 238 c can identify ordetect hunting mode, by identifying increasing request intervals (e.g.,increasing delays), for example. The long poll hunting detector 238 acan also detect hunting mode by detecting increasing request intervals,followed by a request with no response (e.g., connection timed out), orby detecting increasing request intervals followed by a decrease in theinterval. In addition, the long poll hunting detector 238 c can apply afilter value or a threshold value to request-response time delay value(e.g., an absolute value) above which the detected delay can beconsidered to be a long poll request-response delay, The filter valuecan be any suitable value characteristic of long polls and/or networkconditions (e.g., 2 s, 5 s, 10 s, 15 s, 20 s., etc.) can be used as afilter or threshold value.

The response delay time (‘D’) refers to the start time to receive aresponse after a request has been sent and the idle refers to time tosend a subsequent request after the response has been received. In oneembodiment, the outgoing request is detected to be for a persistentconnection based on a comparison (e.g., performed by the tracking engine238 b) of the response delay time relative (‘D’) or average of (‘D’)(e.g., any average over any period of time) to the idle time (‘IT’), forexample, by the long poll detector 238 a. The number of averages usedcan be fixed, dynamically adjusted, or changed over a longer period oftime. For example, the requests initiated by the client are determinedto be long poll requests if the response delay time interval is greaterthan the idle time interval (D>IT or D>>IT). In one embodiment, thetracking engine 238 b of the long poll detector computes, determines, orestimates the response delay time interval as the amount of time elapsedbetween time of the first request and initial detection or full receiptof the response.

In one embodiment, a request is detected to be for a persistentconnection when the idle time (‘IT’) is short since persistentconnections, established in response to long poll requests or long pollHTTP requests, for example, can also be characterized in detectingimmediate or near-immediate issuance of a subsequent request afterreceipt of a response to a previous request (e.g., IT ˜0). As such theidle time (‘IT’) can also be used to detect such immediate ornear-immediate re-request to identify long poll requests. The absoluteor relative timings determined by the tracking engine 238 b are used todetermine whether the second request is immediately or near-immediatelyre-requested after the response to the first request is received. Forexample, a request may be categorized as a long poll request ifD+RT+IT˜D+RT since IT is small for this to hold true. IT may bedetermined to be small if it is less than a threshold value. Note thatthe threshold value could be fixed or calculated over a limited timeperiod (a session, a day, a month, etc.), or calculated over a longertime period (e.g., several months or the life of the analysis). Forexample, for every request, the average IT can be determined, and thethreshold can be determined using this average IT (e.g., the average ITless a certain percentage may be used as the threshold). This can allowthe threshold to automatically adapt over time to network conditions andchanges in server capability, resource availability or server response.A fixed threshold can take upon any value including by way of examplebut not limitation (e.g., 1 s, 2 s, 3 s, . . . etc.).

In one embodiment, the long poll detector 238 a can compare the relativetimings (e.g., determined by the tracker engine 238 b) torequest-response timing characteristics for other applications todetermine whether the requests of the application are long pollrequests. For example, the requests initiated by a client or applicationcan be determined to be long poll requests if the response delayinterval time (‘D’) or the average response delay interval time (e.g.,averaged over x number of requests or any number of delay interval timesaveraged over x amount of time) is greater than a threshold value.

The threshold value can be determined using response delay intervaltimes for requests generated by other clients, for example by therequest/response tracking engine 238 b and/or by the application profilegenerator 239 (e.g., the response delay interval tracker 239 a). Theother clients may reside on the same mobile device and the thresholdvalue is determined locally by components on the mobile device. Thethreshold value can be determined for all requests over all resourcesserver over all networks, for example. The threshold value can be set toa specific constant value (e.g., 30 seconds, for example) to be used forall requests, or any request which does not have an applicable thresholdvalue (e.g., long poll is detected if D>30 seconds).

In some instances, the other clients reside on different mobile devicesand the threshold can be determined by a proxy server (e.g., proxyserver 325 of the host 300 shown in the example of FIG. 3A-B) which isexternal to the mobile device and able to communicate over a wirelessnetwork with the multiple different mobile devices, as will be furtherdescribed with reference to FIG. 3B.

In one embodiment, the cache policy manager 245 sends the pollingschedule to the proxy server (e.g., proxy server 125 or 325 shown in theexamples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A) and can be used by the proxy server inmonitoring the content source, for example, for changed or new content(updated response different from the cached response associated with arequest or application). A polling schedule sent to the proxy caninclude multiple timing parameters including but not limited to interval(time from request 1 to request 2), a time out interval (time to waitfor response, used in long polls, for example). Referring to the timingdiagram of a request/response timing sequence shown in the example ofFIG. 17A-B, the timing intervals ‘RI’, ‘D’, ‘RT’, and/or ‘IT’, or somestatistical manipulation of the above values (e.g., average, standarddeviation, etc.) may all or in part be sent to the proxy server.

For example, in the case when the local proxy 275 detects a long poll,the various timing intervals in a request/response timing sequence(e.g., ‘D’, ‘RT’, and/or ‘IT’) can be sent to the proxy server 325 foruse in polling the content source (e.g., application server/content host110). The local proxy 275 can also identify to the proxy server 325 thata given application or request to be monitored is a long poll request(e.g., instructing the proxy server to set a ‘long poll flag’, forexample). In addition, the proxy server uses the various timingintervals to determine when to send keep-alive indications on behalf ofmobile devices.

The local cache invalidator 244 of the caching policy manager 245 caninvalidate cache elements in the local cache (e.g., cache 185 or 285)when new or changed data (e.g., updated response) is detected from theapplication server/content source for a given request. The cachedresponse can be determined to be invalid for the outgoing request basedon a notification received from the proxy server (e.g., proxy 325 or thehost server 300). The source which provides responses to requests of themobile client can be monitored to determine relevancy of the cachedresponse stored in the cache of the mobile device 250 for the request.For example, the cache invalidator 244 can further remove/delete thecached response from the cache of the mobile device when the cachedresponse is no longer valid for a given request or a given application.

In one embodiment, the cached response is removed from the cache afterit is provided once again to an application which generated the outgoingrequest after determining that the cached response is no longer valid.The cached response can be provided again without waiting for the timeinterval or provided again after waiting for a time interval (e.g., thetime interval determined to be specific to emulate the response delay ina long poll). In one embodiment, the time interval is the response delay‘D’ or an average value of the response delay ‘D’ over two or morevalues.

The new or changed data can be, for example, detected by the proxyserver (e.g., proxy server 125 or 325 shown in the examples of FIG. 1Band FIG. 3A). When a cache entry for a given request/poll has beeninvalidated, the use of the radio on the mobile device 250 can beenabled (e.g., by the local proxy or the cache policy manager 245) tosatisfy the subsequent polling requests, as further described withreference to the interaction diagram of FIG. 4B.

One embodiment of the cache policy manager 245 includes a cache orconnect selection engine 249 which can decide whether to use a locallycached entry to satisfy a poll/content request generated at the mobiledevice 250 by an application or widget. For example, the local proxy 275or the cache policy manger 245 can intercept a polling request, made byan application (e.g., mobile application) on the mobile device, tocontact the application server/content provider. The selection engine249 can determine whether the content received for the interceptedrequest has been locally stored as cache elements for deciding whetherthe a radio of the mobile device needs to be activated to satisfy therequest made by the application (e.g., a mobile application) and alsodetermine whether the cached response is still valid for the outgoingrequest prior to responding to the outgoing request using the cachedresponse.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275, in response to determining thatrelevant cached content exists and is still valid, can retrieve thecached elements from the local cache to provide a response to theapplication which made the polling request such that a radio of themobile device is not activated to provide the response to theapplication. In general, the local proxy 275 continues to provide thecached response each time the outgoing request is received until theupdated response different from the cached response is detected.

When it is determined that the cached response is no longer valid, a newrequest for a given request is transmitted over the wireless network foran updated response. The request can be transmitted to the applicationserver/content provider (e.g., server/host 110) or the proxy server onthe host server (e.g., proxy 325 on the host 300) for a new and updatedresponse. In one embodiment the cached response can be provided again asa response to the outgoing request if a new response is not receivedwithin the time interval, prior to removal of the cached response fromthe cache on the mobile device; an example process flow is illustratedin the flow chart of FIG. 10.

FIG. 3A depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of server-sidecomponents (host server 300 and proxy server 325) in a distributed proxyand cache system that manages traffic in a wireless network for resourceconservation, content caching, and/or traffic management.

The host server 300 generally includes, for example, a network interface308 and/or one or more repositories 312, 314, 316. Note that server 300may be any portable/mobile or non-portable device, server, cluster ofcomputers and/or other types of processing units (e.g., any number of amachine shown in the example of FIG. 11) able to receive, transmitsignals to satisfy data requests over a network including any wired orwireless networks (e.g., WiFi, cellular, Bluetooth, etc.).

The network interface 308 can include networking module(s) or devices(s)that enable the server 300 to mediate data in a network with an entitythat is external to the host server 300, through any known and/orconvenient communications protocol supported by the host and theexternal entity. Specifically, the network interface 308 allows theserver 308 to communicate with multiple devices including mobile phonedevices 350, and/or one or more application servers/content providers310.

The host server 300 can store information about connections (e.g.,network characteristics, conditions, types of connections, etc.) withdevices in the connection metadata repository 312. Additionally, anyinformation about third party application or content providers can alsobe stored in 312. The host server 300 can store information aboutdevices (e.g., hardware capability, properties, device settings, devicelanguage, network capability, manufacturer, device model, OS, OSversion, etc.) in the device information repository 314. Additionally,the host server 300 can store information about network providers andthe various network service areas in the network service providerrepository 316.

The communication enabled by network interface 308 allows forsimultaneous connections (e.g., including cellular connections) withdevices 350 and/or connections (e.g., including wired/wireless, HTTP,Internet connections, LAN, WiFi, etc.) with content servers/providers310, to manage the traffic between devices 350 and content providers310, for optimizing network resource utilization and/or to conserverpower (battery) consumption on the serviced devices 350. The host server300 can communicate with mobile devices 350 serviced by differentnetwork service providers and/or in the same/different network serviceareas. The host server 300 can operate and is compatible with devices350 with varying types or levels of mobile capabilities, including byway of example but not limitation, 1G, 2G, 2G transitional (2.5G,2.75G), 3G (IMT-2000), 3G transitional (3.5G, 3.75G, 3.9G), 4G(IMT-advanced), etc.

In general, the network interface 308 can include one or more of anetwork adaptor card, a wireless network interface card (e.g., SMSinterface, WiFi interface, interfaces for various generations of mobilecommunication standards including but not limited to 1G, 2G, 3G, 3.5G,4G type networks such as, LTE, WiMAX, etc.,), Bluetooth, WiFi, or anyother network whether or not connected via a router, an access point, awireless router, a switch, a multilayer switch, a protocol converter, agateway, a bridge, a bridge router, a hub, a digital media receiver,and/or a repeater.

The host server 300 can further include, server-side components of thedistributed proxy and cache system which can include, a proxy server 325and a server cache 335. In one embodiment, the proxy server 325 caninclude an HTTP access engine 345, a caching policy manager 355, a proxycontroller 365, a traffic shaping engine 375, a new data detector 347and/or a connection manager 395.

The HTTP access engine 345 may further include a heartbeat manager 398the proxy controller 365 may further include a data invalidator module358 the traffic shaping engine 375 may further include a controlprotocol 376 and a batching module 377. Additional or lesscomponents/modules/engines can be included in the proxy server 325 andeach illustrated component.

As used herein, a “module,” “a manager,” a “handler,” a “detector,” an“interface,” a “controller,” a “normalizer,” a “generator,” an“invalidator,” or an “engine” includes a general purpose, dedicated orshared processor and, typically, firmware or software modules that areexecuted by the processor. Depending upon implementation-specific orother considerations, the module, manager, handler, detector, interface,controller, normalizer, generator, invalidator, or engine can becentralized or its functionality distributed. The module, manager,handler, detector, interface, controller, normalizer, generator,invalidator, or engine can include general or special purpose hardware,firmware, or software embodied in a computer-readable (storage) mediumfor execution by the processor. As used herein, a computer-readablemedium or computer-readable storage medium is intended to include allmediums that are statutory (e.g., in the United States, under 35 U.S.C.101), and to specifically exclude all mediums that are non-statutory innature to the extent that the exclusion is necessary for a claim thatincludes the computer-readable (storage) medium to be valid. Knownstatutory computer-readable mediums include hardware (e.g., registers,random access memory (RAM), non-volatile (NV) storage, to name a few),but may or may not be limited to hardware.

In the example of a device (e.g., mobile device 350) making anapplication or content request to an application server or contentprovider 310, the request may be intercepted and routed to the proxyserver 325, which is coupled to the device 350 and the applicationserver/content provider 310. Specifically, the proxy server is able tocommunicate with the local proxy (e.g., proxy 175 and 275 of theexamples of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 respectively) of the mobile device 350,the local proxy forwards the data request to the proxy server 325 for,in some instances, further processing, and if needed, for transmissionto the application server/content server 310 for a response to the datarequest.

In such a configuration, the host 300, or the proxy server 325 in thehost server 300 can utilize intelligent information provided by thelocal proxy in adjusting its communication with the device in such amanner that optimizes use of network and device resources. For example,the proxy server 325 can identify characteristics of user activity onthe device 350 to modify its communication frequency. Thecharacteristics of user activity can be determined by, for example, theactivity/behavior awareness module 366 in the proxy controller 365, viainformation collected by the local proxy on the device 350.

In one embodiment, communication frequency can be controlled by theconnection manager 395 of the proxy server 325, for example, to adjustpush frequency of content or updates to the device 350. For instance,push frequency can be decreased by the connection manager 395 whencharacteristics of the user activity indicate that the user is inactive.In one embodiment, when the characteristics of the user activityindicate that the user is subsequently active after a period ofinactivity, the connection manager 395 can adjust the communicationfrequency with the device 350 to send data that was buffered as a resultof decreased communication frequency, to the device 350.

In addition, the proxy server 325 includes priority awareness of variousrequests, transactions, sessions, applications, and/or specific events.Such awareness can be determined by the local proxy on the device 350and provided to the proxy server 325. The priority awareness module 367of the proxy server 325 can generally assess the priority (e.g.,including time-criticality, time-sensitivity, etc.) of various events orapplications; additionally, the priority awareness module 367 can trackpriorities determined by local proxies of devices 350.

In one embodiment, through priority awareness, the connection manager395 can further modify communication frequency (e.g., use or radio ascontrolled by the radio controller 396) of the server 300 with thedevices 350. For example, the server 300 can notify the device 350, thusrequesting use of the radio if it is not already in use, when data orupdates of an importance/priority level which meets a criteria becomesavailable to be sent.

In one embodiment, the proxy server 325 can detect multiple occurrencesof events (e.g., transactions, content, data received fromserver/provider 310) and allow the events to accumulate for batchtransfer to device 350. Batch transfer can be cumulated and transfer ofevents can be delayed based on priority awareness and/or useractivity/application behavior awareness, as tracked by modules 366and/or 367. For example, batch transfer of multiple events (of a lowerpriority) to the device 350 can be initiated by the batching module 377when an event of a higher priority (meeting a threshold or criteria) isdetected at the server 300. In addition, batch transfer from the server300 can be triggered when the server receives data from the device 350,indicating that the device radio is already in use and is thus on. Inone embodiment, the proxy server 325 can order the each messages/packetsin a batch for transmission based on event/transaction priority, suchthat higher priority content can be sent first, in case connection islost or the battery dies, etc.

In one embodiment, the server 300 caches data (e.g., as managed by thecaching policy manager 355) such that communication frequency over anetwork (e.g., cellular network) with the device 350 can be modified(e.g., decreased). The data can be cached, for example in the servercache 335, for subsequent retrieval or batch sending to the device 350to potentially decrease the need to turn on the device 350 radio. Theserver cache 335 can be partially or wholly internal to the host server300, although in the example of FIG. 3A, it is shown as being externalto the host 300. In some instances, the server cache 335 may be the sameas and/or integrated in part or in whole with another cache managed byanother entity (e.g., the optional caching proxy server 199 shown in theexample of FIG. 1B), such as being managed by an applicationserver/content provider 110, a network service provider, or anotherthird party.

In one embodiment, content caching is performed locally on the device350 with the assistance of host server 300. For example, proxy server325 in the host server 300 can query the application server/provider 310with requests and monitor changes in responses. When changed or newresponses are detected (e.g., by the new data detector 347), the proxyserver 325 can notify the mobile device 350, such that the local proxyon the device 350 can make the decision to invalidate (e.g., indicatedas out-dated) the relevant cache entries stored as any responses in itslocal cache. Alternatively, the data invalidator module 368 canautomatically instruct the local proxy of the device 350 to invalidatecertain cached data, based on received responses from the applicationserver/provider 310. The cached data is marked as invalid, and can getreplaced or deleted when new content is received from the content server310.

Note that data change can be detected by the detector 347 in one or moreways. For example, the server/provider 310 can notify the host server300 upon a change. The change can also be detected at the host server300 in response to a direct poll of the source server/provider 310. Insome instances, the proxy server 325 can in addition, pre-load the localcache on the device 350 with the new/updated data. This can be performedwhen the host server 300 detects that the radio on the mobile device isalready in use, or when the server 300 has additional content/data to besent to the device 350.

One or more the above mechanisms can be implemented simultaneously oradjusted/configured based on application (e.g., different policies fordifferent servers/providers 310). In some instances, the sourceprovider/server 310 may notify the host 300 for certain types of events(e.g., events meeting a priority threshold level). In addition, theprovider/server 310 may be configured to notify the host 300 at specifictime intervals, regardless of event priority.

In one embodiment, the proxy server 325 of the host 300 canmonitor/track responses received for the data request from the contentsource for changed results prior to returning the result to the mobiledevice, such monitoring may be suitable when data request to the contentsource has yielded same results to be returned to the mobile device,thus preventing network/power consumption from being used when nonew/changes are made to a particular requested. The local proxy of thedevice 350 can instruct the proxy server 325 to perform such monitoringor the proxy server 325 can automatically initiate such a process uponreceiving a certain number of the same responses (e.g., or a number ofthe same responses in a period of time) for a particular request.

In one embodiment, the server 300, for example, through theactivity/behavior awareness module 366, is able to identify or detectuser activity, at a device that is separate from the mobile device 350.For example, the module 366 may detect that a user's message inbox(e.g., email or types of inbox) is being accessed. This can indicatethat the user is interacting with his/her application using a deviceother than the mobile device 350 and may not need frequent updates, ifat all.

The server 300, in this instance, can thus decrease the frequency withwhich new or updated content is sent to the mobile device 350, oreliminate all communication for as long as the user is detected to beusing another device for access. Such frequency decrease may beapplication specific (e.g., for the application with which the user isinteracting with on another device), or it may be a general frequencydecrease (e.g., since the user is detected to be interacting with oneserver or one application via another device, he/she could also use itto access other services) to the mobile device 350.

In one embodiment, the host server 300 is able to poll content sources310 on behalf of devices 350 to conserve power or battery consumption ondevices 350. For example, certain applications on the mobile device 350can poll its respective server 310 in a predictable recurring fashion.Such recurrence or other types of application behaviors can be trackedby the activity/behavior module 366 in the proxy controller 365. Thehost server 300 can thus poll content sources 310 for applications onthe mobile device 350, that would otherwise be performed by the device350 through a wireless (e.g., including cellular connectivity). The hostserver can poll the sources 310 for new or changed data by way of theHTTP access engine 345 to establish HTTP connection or by way of radiocontroller 396 to connect to the source 310 over the cellular network.When new or changed data is detected, the new data detector can notifythe device 350 that such data is available and/or provide thenew/changed data to the device 350.

In one embodiment, the connection manager 395 determines that the mobiledevice 350 is unavailable (e.g., the radio is turned off) and utilizesSMS to transmit content to the device 350, for instance via the SMSCshown in the example of FIG. 1B. SMS is used to transmit invalidationmessages, batches of invalidation messages, or even content in the casethe content is small enough to fit into just a few (usually one or two)SMS messages. This avoids the need to access the radio channel to sendoverhead information. The host server 300 can use SMS for certaintransactions or responses having a priority level above a threshold orotherwise meeting a criteria. The server 300 can also utilize SMS as anout-of-band trigger to maintain or wake-up an IP connection as analternative to maintaining an always-on IP connection.

In one embodiment, the connection manager 395 in the proxy server 325(e.g., the heartbeat manager 398) can generate and/or transmit heartbeatmessages on behalf of connected devices 350, to maintain a backendconnection with a provider 310 for applications running on devices 350.

For example, in the distributed proxy system, local cache on the device350 can prevent any or all heartbeat messages needed to maintain TCP/IPconnections required for applications, from being sent over thecellular, or other network, and instead rely on the proxy server 325 onthe host server 300 to generate and/or send the heartbeat messages tomaintain a connection with the backend (e.g., applicationserver/provider 110 in the example of FIG. 1A). The proxy server cangenerate the keep-alive (heartbeat) messages independent of theoperations of the local proxy on the mobile device.

The repositories 312, 314, and/or 316 can additionally store software,descriptive data, images, system information, drivers, and/or any otherdata item utilized by other components of the host server 300 and/or anyother servers for operation. The repositories may be managed by adatabase management system (DBMS), for example but not limited to,Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL,FileMaker, etc.

The repositories can be implemented via object-oriented technologyand/or via text files, and can be managed by a distributed databasemanagement system, an object-oriented database management system(OODBMS) (e.g., ConceptBase, FastDB Main Memory Database ManagementSystem, JDOInstruments, ObjectDB, etc.), an object-relational databasemanagement system (ORDBMS) (e.g., Informix, OpenLink Virtuoso, VMDS,etc.), a file system, and/or any other convenient or known databasemanagement package.

FIG. 3B depicts a block diagram illustrating another example ofcomponents in the caching policy manager 355 in the proxy server 325 onthe server-side of the distributed proxy system shown in the example ofFIG. 3A.

The caching policy manager 355, in one embodiment, can further include,an application protocol module 356, a content source monitoring engine357 having a poll schedule manager 358, and/or an updated or new contentdetector 359. In one embodiment, the poll schedule manager 358 furtherincludes a host timing simulator 358 a and/or a long poll requestdetector/manager 358 b.

In one embodiment, the proxy server (e.g., the proxy server 125 or 325of the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A) can monitor a content source fornew or changed data, for example, via the monitoring engine 357. Theproxy server, as shown, is an entity external to the mobile device 250of FIG. 2A-B. The content source (e.g., application server/contentprovider 110 of FIG. 1B) can be one that has been identified to theproxy server (e.g., by the local proxy) as having content that is beinglocally cached on a mobile device (e.g., mobile device 150 or 250). Thecontent source can be monitored, for example, by the monitoring engine357 at a frequency that is based on polling frequency of the contentsource at the mobile device. The poll schedule can be, for example,generated by the local proxy and sent to the proxy server. The pollfrequency can be tracked and/or managed by the poll schedule manager358.

For example, the proxy server can poll the host (e.g., contentprovider/application server) on behalf of the mobile device and simulatethe polling behavior of the client to the host, via the host timingsimulator 358 a. The polling behavior can be simulated to includecharacteristics of a long poll request-response sequences experienced ina persistent connection with the host (e.g., by the long poll requestdetector/manager 358 b). Note that once a polling interval/behavior isset, the local proxy 275 on the device-side and/or the proxy server 325on the server-side can verify whether application and applicationserver/content host behavior match or can be represented by thispredicted pattern. In general, the local proxy and/or the proxy servercan detect deviations and when appropriate, re-evaluate and compute,determine, or estimate another polling interval.

In one embodiment, the caching policy manager 355 on the server-side ofthe distribute proxy can, in conjunction with, or independent of theproxy server 275 on the mobile device, identify or detect long pollrequests. For example, the caching policy manager 355 can determine athreshold value to be used in comparison with a response delay intervaltime (interval time ‘D’ shown in the example timing diagram of FIG.17A-B) in a request-response sequence for an application request toidentify or detect long poll requests, possible long poll requests(e.g., requests for a persistent connection with a host with which theclient communicates, including but not limited to, a long-held HTTPrequest, a persistent connection enabling COMET style push, request forHTTP streaming, etc.), or other requests which can otherwise be treatedas a long poll request.

For example, the threshold value can be determined by the proxy 325using response delay interval times for requests generated byclients/applications across mobile devices which may be serviced bymultiple different cellular or wireless networks. Since the proxy 325resides on host 300 is able to communicate with multiple mobile devicesvia multiple networks, the caching policy manager 355 has access toapplication/client information at a global level which can be used insetting threshold values to categorize and detect long polls.

By tracking response delay interval times across applications acrossdevices over different or same networks, the caching policy manager 355can set one or more threshold values to be used in comparison withresponse delay interval times for long poll detection. Threshold valuesset by the proxy server 325 can be static or dynamic, and can beassociated with conditions and/or a time-to-live (an expirationtime/date in relative or absolute terms).

In addition, the caching policy manager 35 of the proxy 325 candetermine the threshold value, in whole or in part, further based onnetwork delays of a given wireless network, networks serviced by a givencarrier (service provider), or multiple wireless networks. The proxy 325can also determine the threshold value for identification of long pollrequests based on delays of one or more application server/contentprovider (e.g., 110) to which application, mobile application, or mobileclient requests are directed.

The proxy server can detect new or changed data at a monitored contentsource and transmits a message to the mobile device notifying it of sucha change such that the mobile device (or the local proxy on the mobiledevice) can take appropriate action (e.g., to invalidate the cacheelements in the local cache. In some instances, the proxy server (e.g.,the caching policy manager 355) upon detecting new or changed data, canalso store the new or changed data in its cache (e.g., the server cache135 or 335 of the examples of FIG. 1B and FIG. 3A, respectively). Thenew/updated data stored in the server cache can in some instances, beused to satisfy content requests at the mobile device, for example,after the proxy server has notified the mobile device of the new/changedcontent and that the locally cached content has been invalidated.

FIG. 4A depicts a diagram showing how data requests from a mobile device450 to an application server/content provider 495 in a wireless networkcan be coordinated by a distributed proxy system 460 in a manner suchthat network and battery resources are conserved through using contentcaching and monitoring performed by the distributed proxy system 460.

In satisfying application or client requests on a mobile device 450without the distributed proxy system 460, the mobile device 450, or thesoftware widget executing on the device 450 performs a data request 402(e.g., an HTTP GET, POST, or other request) directly to the applicationserver 495 and receives a response 404 directly from the server/provider495. If the data has been updated, the widget on the mobile device 450can refreshes itself to reflect the update and waits for small period oftime and initiates another data request to the server/provider 495.

In one embodiment, the requesting client or software widget 455 on thedevice 450 can utilize the distributed proxy system 460 in handling thedata request made to server/provider 495. In general, the distributedproxy system 460 can include a local proxy 465 (which is typicallyconsidered a client-side component of the system 460 and can reside onthe mobile device 450), a caching proxy 475 (considered a server-sidecomponent 470 of the system 460 and can reside on the host server 485 orbe wholly or partially external to the host server 485), a host server485. The local proxy 465 can be connected to the caching proxy 475 andhost server 485 via any network or combination of networks.

When the distributed proxy system 460 is used for data/applicationrequests, the widget 455 can perform the data request 406 via the localproxy 465. The local proxy 465, can intercept the requests made bydevice applications, and can identify the connection type of the request(e.g., an HTTP get request or other types of requests). The local proxy465 can then query the local cache for any previous information aboutthe request (e.g., to determine whether a locally stored response isavailable and/or still valid). If a locally stored response is notavailable or if there is an invalid response stored, the local proxy 465can update or store information about the request, the time it was made,and any additional data, in the local cache. The information can beupdated for use in potentially satisfying subsequent requests.

The local proxy 465 can then send the request to the host server 485 andthe host server 485 can perform the request 406 and returns the resultsin response 408. The local proxy 465 can store the result and inaddition, information about the result and returns the result to therequesting widget 455.

In one embodiment, if the same request has occurred multiple times(within a certain time period) and it has often yielded same results,the local proxy 465 can notify 410 the server 485 that the requestshould be monitored (e.g., steps 412 and 414) for result changes priorto returning a result to the local proxy 465 or requesting widget 455.

In one embodiment, if a request is marked for monitoring, the localproxy 465 can now store the results into the local cache. Now, when thedata request 416, for which a locally response is available, is made bythe widget 455 and intercepted at the local proxy 465, the local proxy465 can return the response 418 from the local cache without needing toestablish a connection communication over the wireless network.

In addition, the server proxy performs the requests marked formonitoring 420 to determine whether the response 422 for the givenrequest has changed. In general, the host server 485 can perform thismonitoring independently of the widget 455 or local proxy 465operations. Whenever an unexpected response 422 is received for arequest, the server 485 can notify the local proxy 465 that the responsehas changed (e.g., the invalidate notification in step 424) and that thelocally stored response on the client should be erased or replaced witha new response.

In this case, a subsequent data request 426 by the widget 455 from thedevice 450 results in the data being returned from host server 485(e.g., via the caching proxy 475) and in step 428, the request issatisfied from the caching proxy 475. Thus, through utilizing thedistributed proxy system 460 the wireless (cellular) network isintelligently used when the content/data for the widget or softwareapplication 455 on the mobile device 450 has actually changed. As such,the traffic needed to check for the changes to application data is notperformed over the wireless (cellular) network. This reduces the amountof generated network traffic and shortens the total time and the numberof times the radio module is powered up on the mobile device 450, thusreducing battery consumption, and in addition, frees up networkbandwidth.

FIG. 4B depicts an interaction diagram showing how application pollshaving data requests made by an application/widget 455 (e.g., mobileapplication) on a mobile device to an application server/contentprovider 495 in a wireless network can be cached on the local proxy 465and managed by the distributed caching system (including local proxy 465and the host server 485 (having server cache 435 or caching proxy server475).

In one example, when the application/widget 455 (e.g., mobileapplication/widget) polls an application server/provider 432, the pollcan locally be intercepted 434 on the mobile device by local proxy 465.The local proxy 465 can detect that the cached content is available forthe polled content in the request and can thus retrieve a response fromthe local cache to satisfy the intercepted poll 436, without requiringuse of wireless network bandwidth or other wireless network resources.The application/widget 455 (e.g., mobile application/widget) cansubsequently receive a response to the poll from a cache entry 438.

In another example, the application/widget 455 (e.g., mobileapplication/widget) polls the application server/provider 440. The pollis intercepted 442 by the local proxy 465 and detects that cache contentis unavailable in the local cache and decides to set up the polledsource for caching 444. To satisfy the request, the poll is forwarded tothe content source 446. The application server/provider 495 receives thepoll request from the application and provides a response to satisfy thecurrent request 448. In 450, the mobile application/widget 455 receivesthe response from the application server/provider to satisfy therequest.

In conjunction, in order to set up content caching, the local proxy 465tracks the polling frequency of the application and can set up a pollingschedule to be sent to the host server 452. The local proxy sends thecache set up to the host server 454. The host server 485 can use thecache set up which includes, for example, an identification of theapplication server/provider to be polled and optionally a pollingschedule 456. The host server 485 can now poll the applicationserver/provider 495 to monitor responses to the request 458, on behalfof the mobile device. The application server receives the poll from thehost server and responds 460. The host server 485 determines that thesame response has been received and polls the application server 495,for example, according to the specified polling schedule 462. Theapplication server/content provider 495 receives the poll and respondsaccordingly 464.

The host server 485 detects changed or new responses, and notifies thelocal proxy 465. The host server 485 can additional store the changed ornew response in the server cache or caching proxy 468. The local proxy465 receives notification from the host server 485 that new or changeddata is now available and can invalidate the affected cache entries 470.The next time the application/widget 455 (e.g., mobileapplication/widget) generates the same request for the sameserver/content provider 472, the local proxy determines that no validcache entry is available and instead retrieves a response from theserver cache 474, for example, through an HTTP connection. The hostserver 485 receives the request for the new response and sends theresponse back to the local proxy 475. The request is thus satisfied fromthe server cache or caching proxy 478 without the need for the mobiledevice to utilize its radio or to consume mobile network bandwidth thusconserving network resources.

Alternatively, when the application generates the same request in step480, the local proxy 465, in response to determining that no valid cacheentry is available, forwards the poll to the application server/provider482 over the mobile network. The application server/provider 495receives the poll and sends the response back to the mobile device 484over the mobile network. The request is thus satisfied from theserver/provider using the mobile network 486.

FIG. 5 depicts a diagram showing one example process for implementing ahybrid IP and SMS power saving mode on a mobile device 550 using adistributed proxy and cache system (e.g., such as the distributed systemshown in the example of FIG. 1B).

In step 502, the local proxy (e.g., proxy 175 in the example of FIG. 1B)monitors the device for user activity. When the user is determined to beactive, server push is active. For example, always-on-push IP connectioncan be maintained and if available, SMS triggers can be immediately sentto the mobile device 550 as it becomes available.

In process 504, after the user has been detected to be inactive or idleover a period of time (e.g., the example is shown for a period ofinactivity of 20 min.), the local proxy can adjust the device to go intothe power saving mode. In the power saving mode, when the local proxyreceives a message or a correspondence from a remote proxy (e.g., theserver proxy 135 in the example of FIG. 1B) on the server-side of thedistributed proxy and cache system, the local proxy can respond with acall indicating that the device 550 is currently in power save mode(e.g., via a power save remote procedure call). In some instances, thelocal proxy can take the opportunity to notify multiple accounts orproviders (e.g., 510A, and 510B) of the current power save status (e.g.,timed to use the same radio power-on event).

In one embodiment, the response from the local proxy can include a time(e.g., the power save period) indicating to the remote proxy (e.g.,server proxy 135) and/or the application server/providers 510A/B whenthe device 550 is next able to receive changes or additional data. Adefault power savings period can be set by the local proxy.

In one embodiment, if new, changed, or different data or event isreceived before the end of any one power saving period, then the waitperiod communicated to the servers 510A/B can be the existing period,rather than an incremented time period. In response, the remote proxyserver, upon receipt of power save notification from the device 550, canstop sending changes (data or SMS's) for the period of time requested(the wait period). At the end of the wait period, any notificationsreceived can be acted upon and changes sent to the device 550, forexample, as a single batched event or as individual events. If nonotifications come in, then push can be resumed with the data or an SMSbeing sent to the device 550. The proxy server can time the poll or datacollect event to optimize batch sending content to the mobile device 550to increase the chance that the client will receive data at the nextradio power on event.

Note that the wait period can be updated in operation in real time toaccommodate operating conditions. For example, the local proxy canadjust the wait period on the fly to accommodate the different delaysthat occur in the system.

Detection of user activity in step 508 at the device 550 causes thepower save mode to be exited. When the device 550 exits power save mode,it can begin to receive any changes associated with any pendingnotifications. If a power saving period has expired, then no power savecancel call may be needed as the proxy server will already be intraditional push operation mode.

In one embodiment, power save mode is not applied when the device 550 isplugged into a charger. This setting can be reconfigured or adjusted bythe user or another party. In general, the power save mode can be turnedon and off, for example, by the user via a user interface on device 550.In general, timing of power events to receive data can be synchronizedwith any power save calls to optimize radio use.

FIG. 6 depicts another flow diagram 600 illustrating an example processfor distributed content caching between a mobile device and a proxyserver and the distributed management of content caching.

As shown in the distributed system interaction diagram in the example ofFIG. 4A, the disclosed technology is a distributed caching model withvarious aspects of caching tasks split between the client-side/mobiledevice side (e.g., mobile device 450 in the example of FIG. 4A) and theserver side (e.g., server side 470 including the host server 485 and/orthe optional caching proxy 475).

In general the device-side responsibilities can include, decidingwhether a response to a particular request can be and/or should becached. The device-side of the proxy can make this decision based oninformation (e.g., timing characteristics, detected pattern, detectedpattern with heuristics, indication of predictability or repeatability)collected from/during both request and response, and cache it (e.g.,storing it in a local cache on the mobile device). The device side canalso notify the server-side in the distributed cache system of the localcache event and notify it monitor the content source (e.g., applicationserver/content provider 110 of FIG. 1A-B).

The device side can further instruct the server side of the distributedproxy to periodically validate the cache response (e.g., by way ofpolling, or sending polling requests to the content source). The deviceside can further decide whether a response to a particular cache requestshould be returned from the local cache (e.g., whether a cache hit isdetected). The decision can be made by the device side (e.g., the localproxy on the device) using information collected from/during requestand/or responses received from the content source.

In general, the server-side responsibilities can include, validatingcached responses for relevancy (e.g., determine whether a cachedresponse is still valid or relevant to its associated request). Theserver-side can send the mobile device an invalidation request to notifythe device side when a cached response is detected to be no longer validor no longer relevant (e.g., the server invalidates a given contentsource). The device side then can remove the response from the localcache.

The diagram of FIG. 6 illustrates caching logic processes performed foreach detected or intercepted request (e.g., HTTP request) detected at amobile device (e.g., client-side of the distributed proxy). In step 602,the client-side of the proxy (e.g., local proxy 275 shown in FIG. 2A-Bor mobile device 450 of FIG. 4A) receives a request (from anapplication, mobile application or mobile client). In step 604, URL isnormalized and in step the client-side checks to determine if therequest is cacheable, in step 606. If the request is determined to benot cacheable in step 612, the request is sent to the source(application server/content provider) in step 608 and the response isreceived 610 and delivered to the requesting application 622, similar toa request-response sequence without interception by the client sideproxy.

If the request is determined to be cacheable, in step 612, theclient-side looks up the cache to determine whether a cache entry existsfor the current request. If so, in step 624, the client-side candetermine whether the entry is valid and if so, the client side cancheck the request to see if includes a validator (e.g., a modifiedheader or an entity tag) in step 628. For example, the concept ofvalidation is eluded to in section 13.3 of RFC 2616 which describes inpossible types of headers, and forms a validating response 632 if so tobe delivered to the requesting application in step 622. If the requestdoes not include a validator as determined by step 628, a response isformed from the local cache in step 630 and delivered to the requestingapplication in step 622. This validation step can be used for contentthat would otherwise normally be considered un-cacheable.

If, instead, in step 624, the cache entry is found but determined to beno longer valid or invalid, the client side of the proxy, sends therequest to the content source (application server/content host) andreceives a response directly from the source in step 618. Alternativeprocessing may be performed if the content is determined to includenon-cacheable content. Similarly, if in step 612, a cache entry was notfound during the look up, the request is also sent in step 616. Once theresponse is received, the client side checks the response to determineif it is cacheable in step 626. If so, the response is cached in step620. The client then sends another poll in step 614 and then deliversthe response to the requesting application in step 622.

FIG. 7 depicts an interaction diagram showing cache management by adistributed proxy system 760 of content delivered to an application 755(e.g., mobile application) over a long-held request while ensuringfreshness of content delivered.

The diagram illustrates an example process for how cached responsesreceived in long-held requests (e.g., long-held HTTP request, longpolls, or HTTP streaming) are provided to the requesting application 755and management of expired/invalid/non-relevant cache entries. Along-held request can be any request for a persistent connection that isheld between the device and the server until a response is available atthe server to be sent (or pushed) to the device. The long-held requestor long-held HTTP request can allow the device/server interaction tosimulate content push over the persistent connection (e.g., COMET stylepush), for example, over a persisted connection over HTTP.

In step 702, the application 755 sends a request which is detected andintercepted by the local proxy 765 on the mobile device 750 on theclient/device-side of the proxy system 760. Note that therequest-response sequence 702, 704, 706, and 708 shown occurs after along poll hunting period, which may sometimes be performed by theapplication (e.g., a mobile application) sending long poll requests. Thelong poll hunting period may or may not be performed, but whenperformed, allows the requesting application 755 to find the longestamount of time it can hold a request with the end server/provider 795open before the connection times out (e.g., due to network reason, suchas socket closures).

A timing diagram showing characteristics request-response timingsequences is further illustrated in the example of FIG. 8. In general,the device proxy 750 or local proxy 765 is able to detectrequest-response pattern sequences initiated from the application 755while long poll hunting and can wait until the hunting period hassettled prior to caching responses from long poll request. Therequest-response steps shown between 702 and 710 occur after any longpoll hunting request/response pairs, if it was performed by therequesting application 755.

The request is sent to the server/provider 795 in step 704 and therequest times out or closes in 706, when the server 795 sends a responsein step 708 back to the application 755 on the device side 750. Theconnection times out when the server 795 sends a response in step 708due to the nature of the long-held request send in step 702. Theresponse, when sent is also intercepted by the local proxy 760 on themobile side 750 of the distributed proxy 760, for local caching.

Once cached, the local proxy 765 notifies the server-side 770 of theproxy of the system 760 and requests that the server-side 770 proxy(e.g., the host server 785) begin to monitor the server/provider 790 instep 712. In step 714, the server-side proxy 770 now begins to sendrequests to the server/provider in order to monitor responses received716 from the server/provider 795.

The next time the application 755 sends the request 718, the local proxy765 determines that a local cache entry now exists and waits for aperiod of time (e.g., a long poll interval) 720 before providing thecached response back to the application 755, in step 722. The localproxy 765 allows the period of time to elapse to simulate the actualbehavior of the server/provider 795 with the application 755, since inan actual long poll request which goes over the network, a response isnot received until after some delay, characteristic of the given longpoll.

Starting at step 724, another request is sent from the application(e.g., a mobile application) 755 when the response from theserver/provider 795 in step 726 is validated. The local proxy 765 waitsfor an interval in step 728 before replying with the cache entry in step744. However, in the interim, the server-side proxy 770 in monitoringresponses sends a request in step 730 to the server/provider 795 anddetects content change in the response received 732 from theserver/provider 795 in step 734. The server-side 770 proxy thus cachesthe changed/updated response data at the server-side proxy in step 736and notifies the local proxy 765 to invalidate the associated cacheentry 738.

The local proxy 765, in response to receiving an invalidation notice,sets the associated entry to be invalidated as being ‘transient’ in step740, or otherwise annotated or indicated to be marked for deletion orremoval. At this point, the local proxy 765 replies to the application755 again with the transient cache in step 744. The local proxy 765 alsoconnects to the server-side proxy 770 to obtain the new cached data atthe server-side 770, in step 742, and receives a response (thenew/updated response) at step 746.

The next time the same request is sent from the application (e.g., amobile application) in step 748, the local proxy 765 now can reply withthe response received from the server cache, in step 750. Thus, even inthe event when a cache entry has been invalidated, the application(e.g., a mobile application) request need not be sent over the network(e.g., wireless, or cellular network) to receive a current/relevantresponse. The subsequent request 752 is sent to the local proxy 765 forprocessing (e.g., forwarded to the application server/content provider795) in step 754.

FIG. 8 depicts a timing diagram 800 showing hunting mode behavior 805 ina long poll request and a timing diagram showing timing characteristicswhen the long poll has settled 810.

In hunting mode 805, the request times are held for an increasing amountof time (180, 360, . . . 1024 s.) until a request times out withoutreceiving a response from the server (as shown in 802, 804, 806, 808).After this time is detected, the request times are now held at some timeless than the time it took for a time out (e.g., now 500 s.) and used tosend future long poll requests. The diagram 810 shows the timingcharacteristics of request/response pairs after the long poll huntingperiod has settled. These characteristics can be detected and identifiedin operation by the local proxy and/or the remote proxy for handlingduring caching. As previously described, the distributed caching systemcan either begin caching (optionally) while the application is still inlong poll hunting mode, or begin caching after the hunting period 805has completed and the application is in settled mode as in 810. Ingeneral, if a decrease in time interval is detected, the response is notcached until the local or remote proxy can verify that a subsequentreceived response meets cacheability conditions.

In general, long poll hunting may or may not be performed by mobile appsor clients but the distributed system includes mechanisms to detect longpoll hunting activity for application long polls and can simply ignorethe long poll hunting requests and begin caching after the huntingperiod has elapsed and the long polls have settled at some constant ornear constant interval value or apply logic to begin caching during thehunting period, thus enabling accelerated caching to enhance performanceand improve user experience.

FIG. 9 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process for cachingcontent pushed to a mobile device in a persistent connection from acontent server over a wireless network.

In process 902, a request initiated from a mobile client on a mobiledevice is detected. The request is detected to be a long poll request(e.g., long-held request, long-held-HTTP request) or one for any type ofpersistent connection (e.g., enabling push emulation by the server,COMET style push, HTTP streaming, etc.).

In process 904, it is determined that a cached response is available ona cache of the mobile device for the request from the mobile device. Inprocess 906, a content server is monitored for an updated responsedifferent from the cached response associated with the request, forexample, by a proxy server able to establish wireless connectivity tothe mobile device.

In process 908, it is determined whether the cached response is stillvalid, prior to responding to the outgoing request using the cachedresponse. If not, the process flow continues to process ‘A’ continued inthe example of FIG. 10. The updated content/response for the outgoingrequest can be detected by the proxy server and also optionally cachedat the proxy server for retrieval by the mobile device.

If the cached response is determined to be valid, in process 910, a timeinterval is allowed to elapse. The time interval can be determined by apoll request interval by detecting, for example, the two consecutiverequests from an application which generated the outgoing request fromthe mobile device. The two consecutive requests can be tracked prior todetection of the outgoing request initiated from the application (e.g.,a mobile application) on the mobile device.

In process 912, to the outgoing request is responded to, using thecached response on the cache of the mobile device timed to correspond toa manner in which the content server would respond to the outgoingrequest. Thus, the outgoing request can be filled without a need to sendthe outgoing request over the wireless network. However, even thoughthat the request can be filled or is filled without the need to go overthe network, the request may still be sent over the network, for otherreasons.

The manner of response of the content server can be simulated byallowing the time interval to elapse before responding to the outgoingrequest with the cached response. In one embodiment, the time intervalcan be determined based on request characteristics of an application onthe mobile device from which the outgoing request originates. In process914, the cached response is continued to be provided each time theoutgoing request is received until the updated response different fromthe cached response is detected.

FIG. 10 depicts a diagram showing example processes that occur whenremoving a stored response from the local cache on a mobile device for along poll request.

In process 1002, it is determined that a cached response stored on themobile device is no longer valid for a request. The cached response canbe determined to be invalid for an outgoing request based on anotification received from a proxy server coupled to the content server,which monitors the content server for updated responses that aredifferent from the cached response stored at the local cache on themobile device.

In one example, the cached response is simply removed from the cache, inprocess 1004. In a second example, the cached response is provided againto an application which generated the outgoing request (immediatelywithout waiting for a time interval), in process 1006, and then removedfrom the cache in 1008.

In another example, a time interval is allowed to elapse afterdetermination of invalid cached response, in process 1010. Then, thecached is provided once again to an application which generated theoutgoing request in step 1012, before removing the cached response fromthe cache in step 1014.

In yet another example, a new response to the request is transmittedover the wireless network in step 1016 after determining that a cachedresponse stored on the mobile device is no longer valid for the request.A time interval is allowed to elapse in step 1018 before determiningwhether a response has been received from the host (step 1020. If not,the cached response (the one determined to be no longer valid) isprovided once again to an application in step 1022 which generated theoutgoing request prior to removal from the cache, in step 1024

FIG. 11 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process for usingcached content provided over a long-held connection via a wirelessnetwork to satisfy mobile client requests on a mobile device.

In process 1102 indication of repeatability is detected in responsesreceived for requests from a mobile client on a mobile device. In oneembodiment, the repeatability can be determined when two responsesreceived from the prior requests are the same. For example, hash valuesof the responses received for the prior requests are used to determinedrepeatability.

In process 1104, a cached response is stored on the mobile device forthe mobile client, when the responses received in prior requests fromthe mobile client indicate repeatability in responses. In process 1106,a request initiated from the mobile client is detected on the mobiledevice. The request is detected to be one for a long-held connectionover which content is pushed to the mobile client when available. Thelong held connection may be a long-held HTTP connection suited forcontent push from the content server.

In process 1108, it is determined whether the cached response for therequest is available on the mobile device. If so, in process 1110, themanner in which a source to which the request is directed would respondto the request is simulated. In process 1112, the request is respondedto using the cached response already stored on the mobile device. Forexample, the cached response already on the mobile device is provided tothe mobile client after a time interval has elapsed. In process 1114,the request is satisfied without a need to send the request over thewireless network.

Concurrently and/or independently, a source which provides responses torequests of the mobile client can be monitored to determine relevancy ofthe cached response stored in the cache of the mobile device for therequest. The source is monitored by an entity external from the mobiledevice.

FIG. 12 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process for cachingcontent received at a mobile device via a persistent connection over awireless network.

In process 1202, a request generated by a application (e.g., a mobileapplication) on the mobile device is intercepted at the mobile device.The request can be intercepted by a local proxy on the mobile device. Inprocess 1204, it is determined that the request is to establish thepersistent connection with an application server hosting the application(e.g., a mobile application). The outgoing request can be detected to befor the persistent connection based on timing characteristics of priorrequests generated by a same application or client on the mobile device.

The timing characteristics can include, one or more of, a response delaytime to receive a response after a request has been sent and an idletime to send a subsequent request after the response has been received.

In one embodiment, the outgoing request is detected to be for thepersistent connection based on a comparison of the response/delay timerelative to the idle time. For example, the outgoing request is detectedto be for the persistent connection when the idle time is short comparedto the response/delay time. The outgoing request can also be detected tobe for the persistent connection if the idle time indicates a immediateor near-immediate issuance of the subsequent request after receipt ofthe response.

In process 1206, a request (e.g., a long-held HTTP request) initiatedfrom the mobile client is detected on the mobile device. In process1208, a cached response is provided to the application (e.g., a mobileapplication) from a cache of the mobile device to satisfy the requestwithout sending the request over the wireless network. The cachedresponse can be provided to the application (e.g., a mobile application)after a time interval has elapsed. In process 1210, a source for updatesto the cached response for the request is monitored. The cached responsecan be provided by a local proxy on the mobile device and the source canbe monitored by a proxy server wirelessly coupled to the mobile deviceand able to communicate with the local proxy.

In process 1212, an updated response for the request is cached. Theupdated response for the request can be detected by the proxy server andstored at a remote cache on the proxy server. In addition, the updatedresponse can be provided to the application (e.g., a mobile application)by the proxy server. The proxy server can notify local proxy that thecached response is no longer valid when updates to the cached responseare detected from the source. In process 1214, the updated response forthe request is provided to the application (e.g., a mobile application).

FIG. 13 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordetecting a long poll request initiated at a mobile device.

In process 1302, a first request initiated by a client on a mobiledevice is detected. In process 1304, a response is received at themobile device responsive to the first request. In process 1306, a secondrequest initiated by the client on the mobile device is detected. Thesecond request is detected after the response is received, and ittypically is the request immediately following the first request (e.g.,no intervening requests between the first and second requests).

In process 1308, the response/delay interval time is computed as timebetween the time of the first request and receipt of the response. Inprocess 1310, the idle time interval is computed as time between thetime of the response to time of the second request. In process 1312, aresponse/delay time interval relative to an idle time interval is usedto determine whether requests initiated by the client are long pollrequests. The process can continue at flow B as illustrated in FIG. 14to illustrate additional example processes for identifying a long polland content caching and serving content from the cache.

Note that after detection of first and second requests, and simultaneouswith or after the processing thereof, a third request from theapplication can be detected. Based on the third request, a trend can bedetermined, identified, or estimated in response/delays based on whenresponses for the second and third requests are received.

The trend may indicate an increase in response/delays, and in oneembodiment, the increase indicates cacheability for the long pollrequests and a third response received is stored as cache elements in alocal cache. Similarly, if the trend indicates that the response delaysare constant or substantially constant then the repeatability criteriafor caching are met and a third response received can be stored as cacheelements in a local cache. In general, substantially constantresponse/delay includes a tolerance within 0-5%, 5-10%, 10-15%, or15-20% of one of the response/delays.

Note that content received for the application is determined to becacheable when the received responses indicate repeatability. Forexample, a third response is received to the third request; andrepeatability can be indicated when the first, second, and thirdresponses are the same. Alternatively, repeatability criteria may be metwhen any two out of the first, second, and third responses are the same.In the case of two responses where the first response is received to thefirst request, a second response is received to the second request,repeatability can be indicated when the first and second responses arethe same.

In one embodiment, in response to detecting at least one decreasingdelay interval from the trend, any response received for the requestingapplication may not be cached yet until a next request (e.g., fourthrequest or any subsequent requests) is received. The request may becached upon the next request-response sequence which increases in delayinterval compared to the prior decreasing delay interval. For example, aresponse received for the fourth request or any subsequent request canbe cached responsive to detection of an increase in delay interval fromthe previous delay interval, for the fourth request-response delay.

The fourth response can be cached responsive to detecting repeatabilityin content with prior responses. For example, the fourth response iscached responsive to detecting that it is the same with at least one ortwo prior responses or cached responsive to detecting that it is thesame with at least three prior responses.

FIG. 14 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process for cachingcontent received in long poll requests of an application on a mobiledevice using timing intervals in a request-response timing sequence.

In process 1402, it is determined whether the response/delay timeinterval is greater than the idle time interval. If so, the requestsinitiated by the client are determined to be long poll requests, as instep 1406.

In process 1404, it is determined, for example, if the response/delayinterval time is greater than a threshold value. If so, the requestsinitiated by the client are determined to be long poll requests as instep 1406. In process 1406, it is determined that the requests initiatedby the client are long poll requests (e.g., a long-held HTTP request, orany request suitable to emulate content push such as one for apersistent connection enabling COMET style push).

In general, the threshold value can be determined by the local proxy oranother entity. In one embodiment, the threshold value is determinedusing response/delay interval times for requests generated by otherclients. The other clients can be those that reside on the same mobiledevice and the threshold value can be determined by the local proxy onthe mobile device.

Other clients can also reside on different mobile devices. The thresholdcan thus be determined by a proxy server which is external to the mobiledevice, and able to communicate over a wireless network with thedifferent mobile devices. Both clients on the mobile device and clientson other devices can be used to determine the threshold, in combinationor in separation.

In one embodiment, the threshold value can be determined, in part or inwhole, based on network delays or other network-related latencies. Thenetwork delays can include delays in a cellular network or over theInternet, and can be determined by the local proxy and/or the proxyserver. Indications and further information regarding mobile networkdelays (e.g., cell network) can be provided by cell service providers orcarriers, for example.

In one embodiment, the threshold value is determined in part or inwhole, based on delays of servers (e.g., the application server/contenthost 110 of FIG. 1A-B) to which the requests are directed, for example,due to internal delays (e.g., server upgrade, server maintenance, servermalfunction, etc.) or network-related delays affecting the specificdestination server.

In one embodiment, the relative timings can be determined by a localproxy on the mobile device and used by a proxy server remote from themobile device to monitor a host to which the requests generated by theapplication are directed for updated responses different from thosestored in the local cache for corresponding requests. Alternatively, therelative timings are detected by a proxy server remote from and coupledto the mobile device. In process 1408, responses received for therequests generated by the application are analyzed.

In process 1410, it is determined whether content received for theapplication is cacheable. The content can be determined to be cacheable,for example, when the received responses indicate repeatability. Thelocal proxy and/or the proxy server can detect repeatability in thereceived response and determine that the content received for theapplication is cacheable. In one embodiment, hash values of theresponses are compared to detect repeatability by a local proxy on themobile device or by a proxy server remote from and coupled to the mobiledevice.

Repeatability can be determined when at least two responses received forthe requests from the application are the same. In some instances, morethan two same responses may be required to satisfy the requirement forcontent repeatability. The number of responses that need to be the samebefore caching begins may be set by default and be the same for allapplications, or on a case by case basis with or without conditions andexpiry time/dates.

In process 1412, the content received for the application is stored ascache elements in a local cache of the mobile device. In process 1414,subsequent requests generated by the application are received. Inprocess 1416, subsequent requests generated by the application areresponded to using the cache elements stored on the mobile device. Therelative timings between responses and requests can be used whenresponding to requests using cached content on the mobile device tocorrespond to a manner in which the content server would respond to theoutgoing request.

FIG. 15 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordetecting requests for a persistent connection (e.g., long pollrequests, long-held HTTP requests, HTTP streaming requests) from anapplication using relative timings in request-response timing sequences.

In process 1502, the relative timings between a first request initiatedby the application, a response received responsive to the first request,and a second request initiated subsequent to the first request also bythe application are determined. In one embodiment, the relative timingscan be used to determine whether requests generated by the applicationare long poll requests. Note that, in general, the first and secondrequests for use in computing the relative timings are selected for useafter a long poll hunting period has settled or detected in the absenceof a long poll hunting period. Alternatively, the first and secondrequests can be detected during a long poll hunting period and used toperform the analysis.

A timing diagram showing example timing characteristics of a long pollhunt is illustrated in the example of FIG. 8. The relative timings canbe determined by for example, determining a first request time when thefirst request is initiated, determining a response time when theresponse to the first request is received, and/or determining a secondrequest time when the second request, subsequent to the first request isinitiated by the application.

In process 1504, it is determined if the second request is immediatelyor near-immediately re-requested after the response to the first requestis received. If so, it can be determined that requests of theapplication are long poll requests or can betreated/processed/cached/managed as a long poll request, as in process1508.

In process 1506, it is determined if the response/delay interval time isgreater than request-response timing characteristics for otherapplications. If so, it can be determined that requests of theapplication are long poll requests or can betreated/processed/cached/managed as a long poll request, as in process1508.

FIG. 16 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example process fordetermining whether to cache content received for an application overlong-held connections on a mobile device.

In process 1602, a response/delay of a request from the application isdetermined. The response/delay time is illustrated and labeled as timeinterval ‘D’ in the example request-response timing sequence shown inFIG. 17 (e.g., the amount of time elapsed between when a request is sentand when a response is detected). The response delay time, can ingeneral, be determined by a local proxy (e.g., device-side proxy) and/orthe server-side proxy (e.g., proxy server). The response/delay can beused alone or in combination with other timing characteristics tocharacterize applications or requests for use in setting pollingintervals to optimize distributed caching.

In process 1604, an expected response/delay is determined for otherapplications accessing a same wireless network as mobile device. Theother applications can reside on the same mobile device and/or includeapplications which reside on other mobile devices serviced by the samewireless network (e.g., the same network operator, carrier, serviceprovider, and/or the same physical infrastructure, and/or the samelogical network). In some instances, applications which reside ondevices serviced by different wireless networks (e.g., differentcarriers or different physical networks)

In process 1606, the expected response/delay and the response/delay ofthe detected request is compared. In process 1608, it is determined thatrequests generated by the application are requests for long-heldconnections if the response/delay of the application is greater than theexpected response/delay. As such it is determined that requestsgenerated by the application are requests for long-held connections, orit is determined that requests generated by the application are to beprocessed and treated as requests for long-held connections.

In process 1610, it is determined that content received for theapplication is cacheable, when the received responses indicaterepeatability. For example, in detecting a second response received forthe second request, repeatability in timing of the first request and thefirst response, and of the second request and the second response can bedetected if present. In process 1612, the content received for theapplication is stored as cache elements in a local cache of the mobiledevice, for example, if the timing for the request-response pairs isdetected to be repeatable.

Note that in general, the caching can begin during long poll hunting(e.g., first, second, and/or subsequent requests are part of a long hungsequence and one or more of the responses are cached). Caching while theapplication is in the hunting period can accelerate or expedite thecaching process (e.g., begin caching sooner) to enhance performancesince cache elements on the local proxy on the mobile device can be usedsooner to serve application requests. The caching may also occur in theabsence of long poll hunts (e.g., the first and second requests areregular requests) or after long poll hunting has settled (e.g., thefirst and second requests described in this flow chart occur after thehunting period).

In process 1614, subsequent requests generated by the application areresponded to using the cache elements stored on the mobile device, tosatisfy the subsequent requests without a need to send the outgoingrequest over the wireless network. In responding to the subsequentrequests using the cached response on the mobile device cache, theresponses are provided in a manner that is timed to correspond to amanner in which a content server would respond, using the response/delayinterval time.

FIG. 17A depicts an example of a timing diagram 1700 showing timingcharacteristics for request and response sequences.

The present technology includes a distributed caching model whichinvolves cooperation of the device-side proxy and server-side. In orderfor it to work after caching a response, the client-side component needsto notify the server-side proxy and also providing a rate that aparticular resource (application server/content provider) must be polledat (to verify validity of cached content). After receiving thisnotification, the server-side proxy can then monitor the resource forchanges (validating resource) and, once a change is detected, theserver-side component can notify the device-side component by sending aninvalidation request.

The client-side component needs to provide a correct and suitablepolling interval to the server-side proxy (e.g., the interval at whichthe server-side proxy is polling the resource to monitor it) for optimalperformance, since if the polling interval is too low, the load isunnecessarily increased on the server-side proxy and by increasing thepolling interval, the local proxy risks providing the expired/irrelevantinformation to the user at the user device.

As previously described, timing characteristics of request-responsessequences between a requesting client/application and contentprovider/application server can be used to determine applicationbehavior and/or to categorize request type. Such information can be usedto determine, identify, estimate, or predict an application's pollingintervals such that an optimal polling interval that the server-sideproxy needs to monitor the resource at can be determined and provided tothe server-side proxy.

The timing characteristics can include, for example, response/delay timeto receive a response after a request has been sent; and an idle time tosend a subsequent request after the response has been received. Therelationships of the various time intervals in a response-requestsequence can be seen in the timing diagram 1700.

Each request-response time sequence can be described using all or someof the following events: 1) Start sending request (1705); 2) Requestsent; 3) Response start (1710); 4) Response end (1720); 5) Next requestsend (1715). The ‘Response Start’ 1710) indicates when the first bytesof response (HEADER) arrived and the ‘Response end 1715’ indicates whenall response content has been received.

Using these events, the device-side can calculate the followingintervals shown in 1700:

1. RI 1708—Request interval—Time between “Request Sent 0” and “RequestSent 1.”

2. D 1704—Delay—Time between ‘Request sent’ and “First bytes of response(HEADER) arrived.”

3. IT 1706—Idle time—Time between ‘Whole Response content received 0’and ‘Request Sent 1’

4. RT 1712—Response time—Time between “First bytes of response (HEADER)arrived.” and “Whole Response content received”

The following relationship of the timing characteristic in arequest-response sequence: RI=D+RT+IT can be considered to extractapplication behavior information for use in caching content in adistributed fashion. Relative comparisons between different intervalscan also be used to characterize the application and its requests.

In general, the device-side component of the distributed proxy can keeptrack of individual timing intervals in a request-response sequence andcompare the values, in a relative (e.g., bigger or smaller than anotherinterval) or absolute manner (specific duration, long, short compared toa dynamic or static threshold value, etc.). The device-side componentcan track these interval values over time, check for stable componentsand determine or identify tendencies or patterns. For example, thedevice-side component can detect increasing or decreasing ‘D’ 1704 inthe case of long poll hunting mode for long poll requests. FIG. 17Bdepicts an example of a timing diagram 1750 showing timingcharacteristics for request/response sequences characteristic of a longpoll. Note that timing diagram 1750 may not be applicable to highlatency long polls.

In one embodiment, a request can be detected, determined, or to be along poll request based on a comparison of the response/delay time (D1754) relative to the idle time (IT 1756) between request 0 1755 andresponse start time 1760. For example, the request can be detected to bea long poll request when the idle time is short compared to the responsedelay time (IT 1756<D 1754). The request can also be determined to be along poll when IT 1756 is zero or substantially zero (˜0).

In addition, the request can be determined or categorized as a long pollrequest if the idle time (IT 1756) indicates an immediate ornear-immediate issuance of the subsequent request after receipt of theresponse (e.g., a short IT 1756). In addition, a request can bedetermined to be a long poll if RI 1758=D 1754+RT 1762+IT 1756˜D 1754+RT1762. In one embodiment, the response time ‘RT’ 1762 can be used todetermine bit rate (e.g., size in byte*8/time).

In general, different combinations of time intervals provide indicationsabout polling pattern of the specific application or request and can beused by the device-side component to generate a polling interval for theserver-side component to use in monitoring the content source. FIG. 18depicts example timing diagrams 1800 showing timing characteristics forvarious types of request-response sequences.

In the figure, 8 time line combinations are illustrated, each containing2 blocks of request-response sequences. In each sequence, the dottedline indicates a response in a request-response interval. Sequence 1802is characterized by a short ‘D’, short ‘RT’, and long ‘IT’. Thussequence 1802 may be a typical poll. Sequence 1804 is characterized by ashort ‘D’, a short ‘RT’, a short ‘IT’ and is indicative of a highpolling rate. Sequence 1804 may also indicate that a user is activelyinteracting with the application and/or actively refreshing theapplication.

Sequence 1806 is characterized by a short ‘D’, a long ‘RT’ and short‘IT,’ which can indicate possible streaming. Sequence 1808 ischaracterized by a short ‘D’, a long ‘RT’, and a long ‘IT’ which canindicate polling of large content. Sequence 1810 is characterized by along ‘D,’ a short ‘RT,’ and a long ‘IT,’ which may indicate a long pollwith high latency allowed on the application level.

Sequence 1812, which has a long ‘D’, a short ‘RT’, and a short ‘IT’ mayindicate a long poll. Sequence 1814, having a long ‘D’, long ‘RT’ andshort ‘IT’ can indicate streaming or long poll of large content.Sequence 1816 has a long ‘D’ a long ‘RT’, and long ‘IT’ can be acombination of 1814 and 1810.

FIG. 19 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone deviceor may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or aclient machine in a client-server network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.

The machine may be a server computer, a client computer, a personalcomputer (PC), a user device, a tablet PC, a laptop computer, a set-topbox (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, aniPhone, an iPad, a Blackberry, a processor, a telephone, a webappliance, a network router, switch or bridge, a console, a hand-heldconsole, a (hand-held) gaming device, a music player, any portable,mobile, hand-held device, tablet, or any machine capable of executing aset of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to betaken by that machine.

While the machine-readable medium or machine-readable storage medium isshown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term“machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” shouldbe taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., acentralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches andservers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term“machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” shallalso be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encodingor carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and thatcause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of thepresently disclosed technique and innovation.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of thedisclosure, may be implemented as part of an operating system or aspecific application, component, program, object, module or sequence ofinstructions referred to as “computer programs.” The computer programstypically comprise one or more instructions set at various times invarious memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when readand executed by one or more processing units or processors in acomputer, cause the computer to perform operations to execute elementsinvolving the various aspects of the disclosure.

Moreover, while embodiments have been described in the context of fullyfunctioning computers and computer systems, those skilled in the artwill appreciate that the various embodiments are capable of beingdistributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that thedisclosure applies equally regardless of the particular type of machineor computer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.

Further examples of machine-readable storage media, machine-readablemedia, or computer-readable (storage) media include but are not limitedto recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memorydevices, floppy and other removable disks, hard disk drives, opticaldisks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital VersatileDisks, (DVDs), etc.), among others, and transmission type media such asdigital and analog communication links.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of“including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,”“coupled,” or any variant thereof, means any connection or coupling,either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling ofconnection between the elements can be physical, logical, or acombination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,”and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall referto this application as a whole and not to any particular portions ofthis application. Where the context permits, words in the above DetailedDescription using the singular or plural number may also include theplural or singular number respectively. The word “or,” in reference to alist of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretationsof the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list,and any combination of the items in the list.

The above detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the teachings to the precise formdisclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, thedisclosure are described above for illustrative purposes, variousequivalent modifications are possible within the scope of thedisclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. Forexample, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order,alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps, or employsystems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes orblocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/ormodified to provide alternative or subcombinations. Each of theseprocesses or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways.Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed inseries, these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel,or may be performed at different times. Further any specific numbersnoted herein are only examples: alternative implementations may employdiffering values or ranges.

The teachings of the disclosure provided herein can be applied to othersystems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements andacts of the various embodiments described above can be combined toprovide further embodiments.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further embodiments of thedisclosure.

These and other changes can be made to the disclosure in light of theabove Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain embodiments of the disclosure, and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theteachings can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its implementation details, while still beingencompassed by the subject matter disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the disclosure should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the disclosure with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodimentsdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe disclosure encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but alsoall equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the disclosure underthe claims.

While certain aspects of the disclosure are presented below in certainclaim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of thedisclosure in any number of claim forms. For example, while only oneaspect of the disclosure is recited as a means-plus-function claim under35 U.S.C. §112, ¶6, other aspects may likewise be embodied as ameans-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as being embodied ina computer-readable medium. (Any claims intended to be treated under 35U.S.C. §112, ¶6 will begin with the words “means for”.) Accordingly, theapplicant reserves the right to add additional claims after filing theapplication to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects ofthe disclosure.

1. A method for detecting a long poll request initiated at a mobiledevice, the method comprising: detecting a first request initiated by aclient on the mobile device; detecting a second request initiated by theclient on the mobile device after a first response is received at themobile device responsive to the first request; using a response delaytime interval relative to an idle time interval to determine whetherrequests initiated by the client are long poll requests; wherein, theresponse delay time interval is between time of the first request andreceipt of the response; wherein, the idle time interval is between timeof the response to time of the second request; detecting a thirdrequest, and detecting a trend in response delays based on whenresponses for the second and third requests are received; wherein, thetrend indicates an increase in response delays; wherein, the increaseindicates cacheability for the long poll requests and a third responsereceived is stored as cache elements in a local cache.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein, the third response is received response to the thirdrequest; and repeatability is indicated when the first, second, andthird responses are the same or when any two out of the first, second,and third responses are the same.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein, thetrend indicates that the response delays are constant or substantiallyconstant; wherein, the trend indicates cacheability for long pollrequests and a third response received is stored as cache elements in acache.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein, substantially constantincludes a tolerance within 0-5%, 5-10%, 10-15%, or 15-20% of one of theresponse delays.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, inresponse to detecting at least one decreasing delay interval from thetrend; waiting for a fourth request to be received; wherein, a fourthresponse received for the fourth request is cached responsive todetection of an increase in delay interval from the previous delayinterval; the fourth response is cached responsive to detectingrepeatability in content with prior responses.
 6. The method of claim 5,the fourth response is cached responsive to detecting that it is thesame with at least one or two prior responses.
 7. The method of claim 1,further comprising, determining that content received for theapplication is cacheable, when the received responses indicaterepeatability, using the responses received for the requests generatedby the application; storing the content received for the application ascache elements in a local cache of the mobile device responsive todetermining cache-ability; responding to subsequent requests generatedby the application using the cache elements stored on the mobile device,to satisfy the subsequent requests without a need to send the outgoingrequest over a wireless network.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein, thefirst response is received response to the first request, a secondresponse is received response to the second request, and repeatabilityis indicated when the first and second responses are the same.
 9. Themethod of claim 7, further comprising, timing responses to thesubsequent requests using the cached response on the cache of the mobiledevice to correspond to a manner in which a content server wouldrespond, using the response delay interval time.
 10. The method of claim1, wherein, the requests initiated by the client are determined to belong poll requests if the response delay time interval is greater thanthe idle time interval.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein, the requestsinitiated by the client are determined to be long poll requests if theresponse delay interval time is greater than a threshold value; wherein,the threshold value is determined by a proxy server external to themobile device, the proxy server being able to communicate over awireless network with the different mobile devices.
 12. The method ofclaim 11, further comprising, determining the threshold value usingresponse delay interval times for requests generated by other clients.13. The method of claim 12, wherein, the other clients reside on thesame mobile device and the threshold value is determined by a localproxy on the mobile device.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein, theother clients reside on different mobile devices.
 15. The method ofclaim 12, further comprising, determining the threshold value based onnetwork delays.
 16. The method of claim 12, further comprising,determining the threshold value based on delays of servers to which therequests are directed.
 17. A system for determining whether to cachecontent received from long poll requests of an application on a mobiledevice, the system comprising: a processor coupled to a machine-readablememory; means for, detecting that requests generated by the applicationare long poll requests using relative timings between a first requestinitiated by the application, a first response received responsive tothe first request, and a second request initiated subsequent to thefirst request also by the application; means for, determining thatcontent received for the application is cacheable, when the receivedresponses indicate repeatability, using the responses receivedresponsive to the requests generated by the application; means for,storing the content received for the application as cache elements in alocal cache of the mobile device responsive to determining thatcache-ability; means for, responding to subsequent requests generated bythe application using the cache elements stored on the mobile device, tosatisfy the subsequent requests without a need to send the outgoingrequest over a wireless network; wherein, the first and second requestsfor use in computing the relative timings are detected during a longpoll hunting period.
 18. The system of claim 17, further comprising,means for, detecting a second response received for the second request;means for, detecting repeatability in timing of the first request andthe first response and of the second request and the second response;wherein, the content received for the application is stored as cacheelements in the local cache of the mobile device if the timing isdetected to be repeatable.
 19. The system of claim 17, wherein, thefirst and second requests for use in computing the relative timings areselected for use after a long poll hunting period has settled.
 20. Amachine-readable memory having stored thereon instructions which whenexecuted by a processor causes the processor to perform a method fordetecting requests for a persistent connection from an application, themethod comprising: determining relative timings between a first requestinitiated by the application, a response received responsive to thefirst request, and a second request initiated subsequent to the firstrequest also by the application; using the relative timings to determinewhether requests generated by the application are long poll requests bycomparing the relative timings to request-response timingcharacteristics for other applications; wherein, the relative timingsare used to determine whether the second request is immediately ornear-immediately re-requested after the response to the first request isreceived.
 21. The method of claim 20, wherein, the relative timings aredetermined by: determining a first request time when the first requestis initiated; determining a response time when the response to the firstrequest is received; determining a second request time when the secondrequest, subsequent to the first request initiated by the application;wherein, the application is a mobile client residing on a mobile device;wherein, the long poll requests are initiated over a cellular network.22. A system for caching content received for long poll requestsinitiated at a mobile device, the system comprising: a local proxy onthe mobile device which determines relative timings between requestsinitiated by the application; wherein, the relative timings are used todetermine whether requests generated by the application are long pollrequests; the local proxy further stores the content received for theapplication as cache elements in a local cache of the mobile deviceresponsive to detection that at least two responses received for therequests from the application are the same; wherein, the relativetimings are determined using a first request initiated by theapplication, a response received responsive to the first request, and asecond request initiated subsequent to the first request also by theapplication; wherein, the relative timings are used by the local proxyremote from the mobile device to monitor a host to which the requestsgenerated by the application are directed.
 23. The system of claim 22,wherein, the first and second requests occur after a long poll huntingperiod or during a long poll hunting period.
 24. The system of claim 22,further comprising a proxy server external to the mobile device, theproxy server being able to wirelessly communicate with the local proxyon the mobile device; wherein, the proxy server monitors a host forupdated responses different from those stored in the local cache forcorresponding requests initiated by the application on the mobiledevice; wherein, the proxy server monitors is able to wirelesslycommunicate with multiple mobile devices in a wireless network andmonitor the host on behalf of multiple mobile devices running the sameapplication; wherein, the local proxy responds to subsequent requestsgenerated by the application using the cache elements stored on themobile device, to satisfy the subsequent requests without a need to sendthe request over a wireless network.